Frank
Top 20
Battery production is set to pass 1TWh.
We need 300TWh all up to be ‘fully sustainable’, Elon Musk says
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Although the supply of lithium-ion batteries is increasingly going to new markets such as energy storage, the electric vehicle market remains the biggest market with Rho Motion forecasting EV sales to rise by more than 14 million units this year, from 10.2 million in 2022.
By 2030, battery supply is expected to hit almost 4TWh, a drop in the ocean to Elon Musk’s predictions that the world will need 300TWh of battery capacity to be fully sustainable.
“That would require annual battery production rising to 6.7TWh by 2030 and 11.8TWh in 2040 – a thirty-fold increase from today’s levels by mid-century,” BMI explains.
“That would require a twenty-fold increase in lithium supply to 12 million tonnes of lithium LCE and a similar increase in nickel sulphate to 8 million tonnes.
“Cobalt supply would have to increase by five times to 1 million tonnes of cobalt sulphate, and manganese by over twenty-fold to 2.5 million tonnes of manganese sulphate.”
Where will the battery production come from?
China is set to lead the charge with an estimated 78% of production this year, followed by 11% from the rest of Asia, 6% from Europe and 5% from North America.
However, the growing battery sector continues to be threatened by expectations that global lithium supply will enter deficit relative to demand by 2025.
New-York based FitchGroup says Chinese manufacturers are more likely to seek foreign supply to meet future needs than rely on an accelerated expansion of domestic production given the environmental scrutiny facing new projects and intensive use of water for lithium extraction.
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They were always coming for a Slice / Share / Split of Manono Pie any old how / way possible
The Writing was on the Wall from the beginning imo
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Food for thought
Frank
Africa gears up to keep more of the profits from lithium boom
Lithium-rich African countries, including Zimbabwe and Namibia, are trying to develop processing and refining industries to capture more of the profits of global demand for battery material.
As the auto industry shifts towards electric vehicles (EVs) – spurred by proposed bans on fossil-fuel cars beginning at the end of the decade – lithium prices and demand have soared.
China, the world’s top lithium refiner, and a leading producer dominates the supply chain, but Western governments and international companies are trying to challenge that and see Africa’s lithium reserves as an opportunity.
For their part, African countries are determined to retain more of the value of their resources than they have in the past, which means not just mining them but processing them before export, which economically is referred to as beneficiation.
“We are saying to ourselves, if you have got the minerals that everybody wants now, you need to make sure that at least you probably mine those minerals differently and not in the usual manner,” Namibia’s mines minister Tom Alweendo told Reuters in an interview at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
“We are going to insist that all lithium mined within the country has to be processed in the country.”
Africa’s lithium production is set to rapidly increase this decade.
From 40,000 tonnes this year, the continent will likely produce 497,000 tonnes in 2030, commodities trader Trafigura estimates, with the bulk of that coming from Zimbabwe.
Prices for lithium more than doubled last year as demand from the electric vehicle industry outstripped supply.
Zimbabwe in December imposed a ban on raw lithium exports, a measure aimed at stopping the smuggling of lithium ore and spurring mines to process in the country.
“We made plans to only allow the export of concentrates,” the country’s mining minister Winston Chitando told Reuters.
“Because of the ban, other investors have come in wanting to mop up lithium ores and develop them to concentrate stage.”
‘Poison of greed’
Mining has often been linked to the exploitation of workers or environmental degradation by foreign powers.In his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pope Francis at the end of January condemned the “poison of greed” for mineral resources that has exacerbated conflict in the country’s east.
The latest effort by African governments is far from the first time they have resolved to retain more of the value of their mineral wealth, which ultimately should boost tax revenue, encourage new businesses and add jobs.
The global transition away from fossil fuels is giving a sense of urgency, although many obstacles remain, notably insufficient electricity supply.
As companies and investors around the world focus on goals to reduce carbon emissions and increase supplies of the minerals that should help, companies and investors are reconsidering projects they may have previously overlooked.
“These are really unique times we are living in, with this whole transition to a clean energy future and Ghana could be part of this story,” Len Kolff, interim chief executive officer at Atlantic Lithium, said.
The company’s Ewoyaa mine project is set to be the first lithium producer in the West African country.
Piedmont Lithium has signed a deal to get 50% of the lithium produced.
“Everybody’s approaching us, like the whole who’s who on the Chinese list and now it’s all the Western OEMs,” Kolff said.
In Mali, Leo Lithium’s Goulamina mine plans to take advantage of high prices to export two 30,000-tonne shipments of lithium ore by the end of this year, managing director Simon Hay said.
The proceeds would help to develop the project to allow domestic processing, Hay said, with the first production expected in the middle of next year to be sent to China’s Ganfeng Lithium.
mining.com
Congo’s president wants new exploration for green energy metals
Democratic Republic of Congo wants to position itself as a key source of metals in the green energy transition, and that will mean new exploration for nickel and chrome, according to President Felix Tshisekedi.
Exploration for the two minerals will begin “in the next few days” in Congo’s southern, diamond-rich Kasai region, Tshisekedi said Tuesday at the Investing in African Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
The country is also looking for partners to invest in cobalt, tantalum, tin and lithium processing.
The transition to clean-energy technologies is a huge driving force for metals used in batteries, solar components, wind turbines and EVs.
Meanwhile, mine output has been limited, helping to send prices for the commodities higher.
Copper on the London Metal Exchange is up more than 40% since the end of 2019, while nickel surged more than 90%.
Congo provides more than two-thirds of the key battery mineral cobalt and is tied with Peru as the world’s second-biggest copper producer, according to the US Geological Survey.
It also has significant deposits of other minerals including lithium, graphite and manganese.
But only 19% of the country — Africa’s second-biggest by landmass — has been properly explored, Tshisekedi said.
‘New deposits’
“The goal is to discover new deposits that can be the subject of calls for bids, with a view to concluding mutually profitable public-private partnerships,” Tshisekedi said according to an emailed transcript of his remarks.The country’s recently created national geologic service will oversee the exploration, he said.
The president is hoping to attract new investment by improving the regulatory environment and through the creation of incentives like a special economic zone around lithium deposits in southeastern Congo, he said.
“Financiers, mining operators, equipment manufacturers, subcontractors, recyclers — everyone can find their part,” he said.
Despite its mineral riches, Congo remains one of the poorest countries in the world, and miners will be expected to ensure Congolese people also benefit, he said.
This will include buying insurance from companies registered in Congo and negotiating development projects with local communities during exploration, he said.
mining.com
General Motors competes for stake in Vale’s base metals unit
General Motors Co. is competing for a stake in Brazilian mining giant Vale SA’s base metals unit, people familiar with the matter said, underscoring automakers’ desire for easy access to the materials needed for electric vehicle batteries.
Detroit-based General Motors has advanced to the next round of bidding for a minority stake in the business, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
Vale could raise more than $2 billion from a deal, according to the people.
Bloomberg News reported in November that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. were also weighing making offers for a slice of the nickel and copper operations.
Deliberations are ongoing and Vale has made no final decisions about a sale, the people said.
Representatives for General Motors and Vale declined to comment.
Vale is separating the base metal assets from its iron ore operations and wants to unveil a strategic partner for the new entity in the first half of 2023, management said last year.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company is making the move as a shift away from fossil fuels spurs demand for materials that are key to the manufacture of EV batteries.
Automakers have been stepping up efforts to lock in supplies of nickel and copper, including through direct deals with producers of these metals.
Vale is already a direct supplier of nickel for Tesla Inc. batteries.
General Motors reached its own agreement with Vale last year to buy supplies of the metal.
In January, General Motors and Lithium Americas Corp. agreed a $650 million pact to develop the largest US lithium deposit, at the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada.
The deal gives General Motors exclusive access to the first phase of production, which is expected to begin in 2026 and forecast to supply as many as 1 million EVs per year.
mining.com
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