Category Archives: Mining

Market for nickel used in EV batteries is getting tighter Japan trading giant to take huge writedown on nickel project Elon Musk has a plea for mining companies: “Please mine more nickel.” “Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way,” said Musk, chief executive officer of the electric-carmaker, during a second-quarter earnings call. Musk’s plea comes as one … Continue reading →

It’s been more than four months since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and the impact of the virus on the commodities space is far from over. Nickel is just one metal still facing hurdles, despite the rebound in prices it saw in Q2. During the first half of 2020, mining and refining facilities for nickel were disrupted at a global scale, from the Philippines to Canada, as a result of coronavirus containment measures. “We … Continue reading →

BY: FRIK ELS, MINING.COM JULY 20, 2020 German luxury vehicle maker BMW signed a US$2.3 billion long-term deal earlier this month with Swedish battery maker Northvolt, the latest of such deals, as European carmakers try to compete with Tesla in the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) market. Tesla’s gigafactories and battery technology have long given it an edge in the EV market (Northvolt was started by two former Tesla executives), but when it comes to … Continue reading →

If there’s one silver lining from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that it’s helped expose vulnerabilities in the U.S. and Defense Department supply chain, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment said. Ellen M. Lord discussed acquisition in the face of COVID-19 during a virtual “fireside chat” today with the Ronald Reagan Institute. Efforts that followed an executive order by the president to assess the defense industrial base and the U.S. supply chain have … Continue reading →

(Reuters) – U.S. rare earths miner MP Materials will go public in a $1.47 billion deal by merging with a private-equity backed blank-check company, underscoring Wall Street’s rising interest in efforts to boost production of the strategic minerals. The listing on the New York Stock Exchange would be the first for a U.S. rare earths company since Molycorp went public a decade ago. Molycorp filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and MP Materials bought California’s … Continue reading →

Does nickel in Timmins have the glamour of gold? There have been significant nickel finds in the rock formations around the famed northeastern Ontario mining camp but the production results always fell short of expectations. Canada Nickel Company’s Crawford nickel-cobalt sulphide project could quickly be changing that narrative. Helmed by one of the world’s foremost nickel experts, company chair and CEO Mark Selby believes the 4,900-hectare property, 40 kilometres north of Timmins, has the … Continue reading →

Western Australia could soon become lithium-ion battery cathode manufacturer, according to a Department of Industry, Innovation and Science report. Commissioned by the Future Batteries Industry Cooperative Research Centre (FBICRC), the report proposes that a cathode precursor plant can be constructed at the CSIRO’s Waterford facilities in Western Australia, which includes the use of BHP Nickel West’s nickel sulphate pilot plant. It is expected that the pilot plant will provide valuable information toward how to … Continue reading →

Read more from original source: RGN Vol 7 Iss 4 by Anderson Murray Media

KoBold Metals, a start-up backed by a coalition of billionaires led by Bill Gates, plans to scour for cobalt in Canada using advanced mapping technology and it’s targeting northern Quebec, just south of Glencore’s Raglan nickel mine. The company, founded in 2018, has acquired rights to an area of about 1,000 square kilometres (386 sq. miles), where it plans to begin collecting geophysical data before the end of the year. KoBold’s backers include big … Continue reading →

Where Tesla goes, lithium will follow. It’s obviously not as simple as that but there is an inevitability in demand for the metals used to make electric-powered vehicles following the success of EVs. Interestingly, the connection between Tesla’s recent rocket-run on the stock market has not been replicated in the battery-metals sector, yet. But as Tesla continues to prove that investors and car buyers are ready to embrace the shift from fossil fuels to … Continue reading →