NEN EXCLUSIVES
Copper and nickel are being stockpiled by China, Europe, and others, and no, it’s not because demand is drying up
Investor Alert: "Battery mining" is about to become big business and you don't want to miss the boat
Nemaska Lithium looks to produce lithium carbonate and hydroxide in Quebec by August 2020
New Energy Narrative, the Drudge Report of new energy news, is now offering battery metals miners/explorers, clean energy companies, and EV makers an exceptional advertising opportunity
It's official: The Trump Administration slaps China with $200 billion in new tariffs, to include tariffs on lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, manganese, aluminum, vanadium, and copper
New Energy Narrative presents: MAJOR PREDICTIONS for renewable energy, electric vehicles, batteries, and more, courtesy of investor Cory Groshek
A social (media) experiment by New Energy Narrative proves that lithium investors really need to do their own research
Why Elon Musk taking Tesla private could be a boon for lithium, cobalt, and other battery metals related stocks
Evaporation ponds are a waste of time, money, space, and water, and lithium producers would be wise to lose them
An open letter to Elon Musk, by Cory Groshek of New Energy Narrative and Manifestation Machine
3 major trends that battery metals investors must pay attention to in 2018
LITHIUM
Western Australian mining companies and the State Government are fighting back against the Federal Government, which wants to cap a tax break they say is vital to the emerging lithium industry
Australia's Orocobre and its Japanese partner Toyota Tsusho intend to build Japan's first lithium hydroxide plant, Naraha, at a cost of $60-70 million, with a $27 million Japanese government subsidy
Standard Lithium has released a maiden mineral resource estimate for its planned lithium brine extraction operation at LANXESS's bromine plant in the Smackover area of Arkansas
Argosy Minerals has upgraded its lithium carbonate resource at its Rincon project in Argentina to 245,120 tons in the Indicated category and will now proceed to a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA)
So much for lithium oversupply: Chilean environmental regulators just rejected Albemarle's plans for six new brine ponds and a new 42,500-tons-per-year lithium carbonate plant in Chile due to environmental concerns
Australia's Pilbara Minerals gives the green light to a $231 million, Stage 2 expansion of its hard rock lithium project, Pilgangoora, in the Pilbara region of Western Australian, with all product already pre-sold via offtake deals
Canada's Standard Lithium signs term sheet with German special chemicals giant LANXESS, paving the way for lithium extraction from the hot brine at LANXESS's Arkansas-based bromine operation
Australia's Altura Mining nails down yet another world-class lithium offtake partner in China's GFL International Co. Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of leading global lithium producer Ganfeng Lithium
Albemarle, faced with the fact that demand is drying up for its brine-based lithium carbonate, is pivoting hard into its Australian hard rock project and associated hydroxide production
Chile's government isn't buying what Albemarle is selling them about the mystery technology the company claims to possess, which can allegedly produce three times more lithium with no more brine
COBALT
Macquarie analyst Vivienne Lloyd doesn't think Katanga's uranium-in-their-cobalt problem will have any lasting effects on cobalt prices and actually believes we have a cobalt oversupply problem
Will the former silver boom town of Cobalt, Ontario, Canada soon host a slew of new, extremely lucrative cobalt mines? The local population hopes so, but isn't holding their breath
Katanga's cobalt troubles in the Congo could spark a rally in the stocks of ex-DRC cobalt mining and exploration companies, including Australian Mines, CleanTeQ, Ardea, eCobalt, Explorex, First Cobalt, and Fortune Minerals
According to a new Capital Economics report: Cobalt prices will hit $70,000 a ton by the middle of next year, due to a tighter-than-expected marketing following Katanga finding uranium in its cobalt concentrate
The DRC's state-owned mining company Gécamines says it was not consulted on Glencore and Katanga Mining’s decision to suspend cobalt sales and exports from the Kamoto mine due to uranium found in its concentrates
Cobalt 27 has received more than US$6.8 million in settlement funds related to the loss, through theft, of 76 tons of the company’s premium grade cobalt from its Rotterdam warehouse in the Netherlands
The sea floor is full of cobalt-bearing crust in some spots and the Chinese are finally trying to figure out a way to economically extract the cobalt from it for use in electric vehicle batteries
First Cobalt has begun testing cobalt hydroxide material as feedstock for its First Cobalt Refinery in Ontario, Canada, as the company considers becoming a buyer of cobalt from other ethical cobalt producers
Australian Mines just got word that the scandium oxide from its Sconi nickel-cobalt-scandium project in Queensland, Australia is suitable for the planned second phase of alloy development alongside the UK's Metalysis
First Cobalt CEO Trent Mell: The news of uranium in Katanga's Congolese cobalt is "a huge shock for us and the [cobalt] industry" and is a "game-changer" in terms of reduction in supplies of the critical metal
NICKEL
Jim Lennon, managing director of Red Door Research: We will not see a bifurcated nickel market, with Class I and Class II nickel split up, however, we are going to see nickel sulphate for EV batteries catching a premium
Extensive investment in new nickel projects may keep nickel prices subdued in the near future, despite nickel demand from the Chinese stainless steel and battery materials sectors increasing exponentially
Roskill forecasts that primary use of nickel in batteries will increase 10-fold by 2030 and UBS predicts that by 2025 the amount of nickel going into batteries will be about 700,000 tons
Australian Mines just got word that the scandium oxide from its Sconi nickel-cobalt-scandium project in Queensland, Australia is suitable for the planned second phase of alloy development alongside the UK's Metalysis
Australian Mines just found even more cobalt and nickel at its Sconi nickel-cobalt-scandium project in Queensland, Australia, and is now planning an optimized Bankable Feasibility Study for next April
Huaqing Nickel & Cobalt, a wholly owned subsidiary of China's Huayou Cobalt, intends to invest in a joint venture called Huayue Nickel & Cobalt in Indonesia with four other companies to produce 60,000 tons of nickel per year
Toronto-based PolyMet mining receives multiple permits from Minnesota for its $1.3 billion NorthMet nickel-cobalt-copper project near Duluth, but still needs water and air permits, among others
Sherritt International releases its 2018 Q3 results: Nickel production up 10% year-over-year, but cobalt production flat, with a net loss for the quarter of $13.3 million
Matt Bohlsen presents: Nickel miners and explorers news for October 2018
Australia's Ardea Resources has generated battery-grade cobalt and nickel sulphate crystals during a pilot plant trial on its ore from its Goongarrie nickel-cobalt project
COPPER
Antofagasta has announced the approval of the expansion of its Los Pelambres mine, which will add an average of 60,000 tons of copper a year to the mine's production over the first 15 years of operation
Glencore tells shareholders to expect adverse effects to its near-term earnings if an issue related to permits for Katanga’s copper import/exports isn't resolved soon with the Congolese authorities
The CEO of one of India's top copper smelters sees Indian copper demand doubling within the next seven years, not even taking into account the increasing adoption of electric vehicles
Word has it that Chinese copper smelter Jiangxi Copper and miner Antofagasta have agreed 2019 copper treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs) at $80.80 a ton and 8.08 cents a pound
Marcin Chludziński, head of Polish copper giant KGHM, says China will be able to weather the global trade war storm and that demand for copper will be positive for the next few years
Mining giant Rio Tinto is rumored to be close to making an offer for a minority stake in Teck Resources’ Quebrada Blanca copper mine in northern Chile
Rumors of a big copper find by Rio Tinto in the Pilbara region of Western Australia has a number of junior mining companies scrambling to stick their own stakes in the ground, as a major deficit of the metal approaches
Outotec, a Finnish-listed technology company, has signed a contract for the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of a new copper smelter to be located at Benete Bay in Sumbawa, Indonesia
BATTERIES & BATTERY MATERIALS
Panasonic North America's CEO Tom Gebhardt: Solid-state batteries are at least a decade away from being used in any meaningful way in electric vehicles
Pilbara Minerals' lithium offtake partner, South Korea's POSCO, has broken ground on a second lithium-ion battery materials plant that will be able to produce 50,000 tons a year
Benchmark Mineral Intelligence: We will see a 399% increase in lithium-ion battery production capacity over the next decade, enough to pass the impressive 1 TWh milestone
The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is investing in Enevate, a battery startup claiming breakthroughs in “5-minute fast charging” and “high energy density”, to accelerate the electrification of their vehicles
The Volkswagen Group has named South Korea's SK Innovation as a strategic supplier of electric vehicle batteries for all of its North American EV production and part of its European EV production
Ireland's Johnson Control is selling its automotive battery business to a Canadian private equity firm and institutional investors, including an entity that manages public pension plans in Quebec, for $13.2 billion
South Korea's POSCO has begun boosting its production of secondary battery anode materials from 24,000 tons to 70,000 tons per year, as it renders itself a major player in the global battery market
Germany is desperately attempting to create an electric vehicle battery industry of its own, 100% independent of China, by throwing a billion euros at a consortium that includes VARTA Microbattery, BASF, and others
Solid Power CEO Doug Campbell: When it comes to solid-state battery development, "graphite isn’t dead yet, but metallic lithium as well as silicon are definitely on the horizon"
Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables: Europe is on track to increase its battery-making capacity by 20 times in the next seven years, hitting 90 gigawatt-hours of manufacturing output per year by 2025
BATTERY & GRID STORAGE
Tesla’s second big battery in Australia has been completed in Victoria, with the Gannawarra Battery Energy Storage System now being largest solar-plus-storage system in the country
Protean Energy is due another $120,000 from the Korean Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning after the company's vanadium battery in Perth has been proven to work as planned
Tesla installs battery microgrid at nonprofit organization Direct Relief's Santa Barbara-based emergency supply warehouse, which the organization says “can never afford to lose power"
Bushveld Energy CEO Mikhail Nikomarov: Vanadium redox flow battery demand is set to increase to over 18,000 MWh, possibly up to 27,500 MWh, by 2027
California is getting serious about getting rid of fossil fuels as it partners with Tesla on batteries to power Silicon Valley and PG&E on replacing three natural gas peaker plants with battery storage systems
Amazon is turning to Tesla for help with energy storage at its Coalville facility in Leicestershire, after successfully partnering with the company on its fulfillment center east of London earlier this year
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance's (BNEF) latest forecasts, the energy storage industry is going to boom between now and 2040, thanks to rapidly dropping lithium-ion battery prices
Battery storage systems aren't allowed to back up solar arrays or wind turbines in Australia, and it's all the government's fault
Australia may never become a leader in the arena of battery manufacturing, but when it comes to the adoption of battery storage technology? Well, that's a whole 'nother story
Texas-based electric utility Luminant has been awarded by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality a US $1-million (EUR 0.88m) grant for a 10-MW/42-MWh battery storage project
BATTERY RECYCLING & URBAN MINING
Chinese auto giant BAIC and chemical products manufacturer Guanghua Sci-Tech will partner up on a plan to recycle batteries, through equity investment and co-construction of recycling systems
The United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC) has awarded $1.08 million to Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts for Phase II of a lithium-ion battery recycling contract
New Grand View Research report: Global battery recycling is projected to become a USD $21.04 billion/year industry by 2025, with the lithium-ion segment projected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.3% from 2017 to 2025
Quemetco, a battery-recycling facility in City of Industry, has been sued by California over 29 alleged violations involving failures to stop hazardous waste from migrating into its neighborhood and an underground aquifer
The 24th International Congress for Battery Recycling ICBR 2019 will be held in Lyon, France from September 18–20, 2019
Call2Recycle, the largest battery collection program in the U.S., is doubling down on a campaign in California, called Avoid the Spark, with free battery recycling events in five counties around the Bay Area this fall
Manitoba just renewed its provincial recycling program, which will see household batteries sent to licensed facilities where valuable metals like nickel and cobalt will be reclaimed and recycled into new materials
Lithion Recycling Inc. has received a $3.8 million funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to enable the recycling of all types of lithium-ion batteries in Quebec, Canada
Is urban miner American Manganese the best kept secret in the battery metals sector? Jeff Nielson at Stockhouse believes so
E-cigarette batteries are filled with valuable lithium, as well as other critical metals, but until now, no one has had the will or the wherewithal to retrieve or recycle them
VANADIUM
Protean Energy is due another $120,000 from the Korean Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning after the company's vanadium battery in Perth has been proven to work as planned
Bushveld Energy CEO Mikhail Nikomarov: Vanadium redox flow battery demand is set to increase to over 18,000 MWh, possibly up to 27,500 MWh, by 2027
Vanadium prices are sky-high, but the same cannot be said of the prices of vanadium mining stocks...what gives?
China’s new high-strength rebar standard is causing vanadium prices to go even higher, further hurting the metals chances of becoming a major player in the battery storage sector
GRAPHITE
Australia’s Syrah Resources has signed a binding sales agreement with China’s Qingdao Taida-Huarun New Energy Technology for graphite from the company’s Balama project in Mozambique
Australia's Renascor Resources has achieved grades of 95% total graphite content in high-grade graphite concentrates it has created through its pilot plant in China, based on feed from its Siviour project in South Australia
Indian graphite electrode maker HEG says it will firm up expansion plans in the next month, following a 680% increase in net profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2018
Nearly 20 years after the residents of Whitefield in Bengaluru began their fight against Graphite India for violating pollution norms, the company has agreed to pay Rs 50 lakh as compensation
Australia's Graphex Mining has secured up to $85 million from global private investment firm Castlelake to fully fund its Chilalo graphite project in Tanzania through to production
ELECTRIC VEHICLES & EV CHARGING
Do you know how much copper is needed in an electric vehicle versus a traditional, internal-combustion-engine-powered vehicle? The answer might surprise you!
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) Education Fund and Environment America Research and Policy Center are all aboard the plan to transition American school buses from diesel to electric
Hyundai and Kia have announced plans to add solar roof charging technology to selected models of electric, hybrid, and internal combustion vehicles for improved power and efficiency
Electric vehicles are going mainstream...by going underground!
The International Energy Agency, in its new 650-page World Energy Outlook, admits that the number of electric vehicles on our roads may top one billion by 2040
An electric airplane called Alice could change how we do regional travel forever, if Israeli electric aircraft make Eviation has anything to say about
It's not "range anxiety" or a lack of available EV charging stations holding back electric vehicle adoption, it is simply the lack of available EV models
A group of automakers, including Tesla, GM, Nissan, and others, called the EV Drive Coalition, has been formed to “reform and recharge” the Federal electric vehicle tax credit in the United States
Quora question-answerer and Tesla Model 3 owner nails it when asked why Ford, GM, etc. can't just snap their fingers and beat Tesla at the EV game
In light of California's wildfires burning out of control, Tesla's Model X "Bioweapon Defense Mode" no longer seems anywhere near as silly or gimmicky as critics said it was when it was first announced
Faraday Future's last remaining founder just jumped ship, following a desperate attempt by the company to stay financially afloat via the launch of a super-sketchy cryptocurrency
General Motors just guaranteed itself a spot in the automotive dustbin of history by publicly stating that it isn't even thinking about producing an electric truck right now
Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess claims that VW's electric vehicle platform and battery procurement plans have the company ready to produce 50 million EVs
CLEAN & RENEWABLE ENERGY
216 mayors representing all 50 states in the U.S., including 25 Republicans, have signed an updated letter calling for more deployment of solar power in America
Hyundai and Kia have announced plans to add solar roof charging technology to selected models of electric, hybrid, and internal combustion vehicles for improved power and efficiency
Spain has launched an ambitious plan to switch its electricity system entirely to renewable sources by 2050 and completely decarbonize its economy soon after
SunPower now provides high-efficiency SunPower Performance Series (P-Series) solar panels under the construction giant Caterpillar’s Cat brand
Despite their public statements in support of clean and renewable energy, privately, the big oil and gas players of the world are pinching pennies when it comes to protecting the planet
Shell’s VP of energy solutions: Shell is looking to build on its strengths and capabilities in oil and gas production and marketing to grow its renewable power business
Big Oil is attempting to slow the adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy by pushing for "zero emission" fossil fuel plants...but will it work?
Energy Vault, a product of Idealab's incubator in Pasadena, has developed a technology that makes use of cement blocks and is based on pumped hydro storage, that the company claims can slash the cost of wind and solar power
Ullico, a privately-held, U.S.-based insurance and financial services holding company, is investing in 70 different United-States-based wind and solar projects, totaling 1.3 GW worth of renewable energy
Renewable energy capacity in the UK has tripled in the last five years, outpacing the growth rate of the so-called ‘dash for gas’ of the 1990s and officially surpassing fossil fuels, in a historic first
SELF-DRIVING & AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
According to Bloomberg, Alphabet-owned Waymo will launch its autonomous transport service in the Phoenix, Arizona suburbs sometime in early December
Watch out, Waymo: Elon Musk says Tesla's vehicles will achieve full self-driving next year, ahead of any other car manufacturer
A new study from the Annals of Tourism Research suggests that self-driving cars are going to become brothels on wheels
Top European car industry execs: Automakers need standards for key equipment, a wide-reaching 5G broadband network, and strong partnerships to make self-driving cars and electric vehicles a success
The American election of a new, Democratically-controlled House of Congress could have major implications for the adoption of self-driving and electric vehicles and their related infrastructure
Google's autonomous vehicle arm, Waymo, is blaming a motorcyclist for being struck by one of its self-driving cars
A new study by the European Patent Office (EPO) reveals a huge increase in patent applications related to self-driving vehicles, indicating that the auto industry is becoming more like the tech sector every day
Volkswagen Group, Intel’s Mobileye, and Champion Motors plan to deploy Israel’s first self-driving ride-hailing service in 2019 through a joint venture called New Mobility in Israel
Volvo and Baidu want the seats in autonomous vehicles replaced with beds and to make them more like hotels on wheels, to aid the technology in eventually displacing cross-country air travel
Waymo and Tesla are racing to see who will reach holy grail of Level 5, completely driverless autonomous vehicles first
MISCELLANEOUS NEWS
Banks may not be investing in new mines or helping to fund a whole lot of battery metals exploration, but big mining companies are, in a big way
The Union of Concerned Scientists thinks U.S. automakers' counter to the Trump Administration's rollback of EPA fuel economy standards is complete b.s. and worse than the rollback itself
The U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Military were working on energy resilience-related projects long before Trump took office, and the President has done nothing to stop them from doing so since taking office
Scandium, on the list of 35 metals critical to United States national security, looks to be the next big thing in the aerospace and auto industries, as aluminum-scandium alloys gain in popularity
Chevrolet may not be planning any electric trucks, but they ARE planning a hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered Silverado that the U.S. Army appears to be VERY interested in
Electric vehicle charging infrastructure would get built a lot faster if developers would stop treating it as a pet project and more like the extremely lucrative business model it could be
Australia’s Syrah Resources has signed a binding sales agreement with China’s Qingdao Taida-Huarun New Energy Technology for graphite from the company’s Balama project in Mozambique
U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, is expected to address critical minerals at the American Exploration & Mining Association’s 124th Annual Meeting (Dec. 2-7, 2018) in Spokane, Washington
Max Motley, HSE Director for IDEA Drilling: Today's Americans are completely ignorant when it comes to the fact that everything from EVs to the smartphones in their pockets depend on natural resources
Australia's Renascor Resources has achieved grades of 95% total graphite content in high-grade graphite concentrates it has created through its pilot plant in China, based on feed from its Siviour project in South Australia