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Watch as numerous fire departments rush to the scene of a major fire at a lithium battery recycling plant in Fredericktown, Missouri, earlier this evening. The blaze, which broke out at the 225,000-square-foot facility owned by Critical Mineral Recovery, led to shelter-in-place advisories and mandatory evacuation orders in the surrounding area. According to its website, the company uses this facility to “recycle lithium-ion battery materials from battery manufacturers, automotive OEMs, battery dealers, recyclers, and processors worldwide,” describing it as “one of the largest lithium-ion battery processing facilities in the world.” All plant workers have been safely accounted for, with only...

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Researchers have discovered a collection of lithium—a primary component in lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries—in Arkansas that, if recovered, could far exceed the projected world demand for lithium in car batteries in 2030.There might be 5.1 million to 19 million tons of lithium in the Smackover Formation brines in southern Arkansas, researchers at the United States Geological Survey and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment found. The lithium mine, calculated using a machine-learning model and geological information that predicted maps of lithium concentration, represents 35% to 136% of the current amount of lithium estimated to be in the U.S. Lithium...

Researchers said in a recent article that Arkansas may have 19 million tons of lithium, which is used in rechargeable batteries for important products like phones and electric cars. The researchers said in their article released last month in the journal Science Advances they had “calculated that there are 5.1 to 19 million tons of lithium in Smackover Formation brines in southern Arkansas,” making up “35 to 136% of the current US lithium resource estimate.” According to a Monday release from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), “the Smackover Formation is a relic of an ancient sea that left an extensive,...

The Companies doing the North Carolina Hurricane Helene victim’s home inspections listed on the FEMA website are owned by Vanguard & BlackRock So the same company that owns majority of the lithium mine in the area will be inspecting the victim’s properties they want.. what are the odds! “They want to you don't want to pay attention to this one so who is going to inspect the homes that are damaged or gone in North Carolina well recently brought to me by the American thinker and my brother Mike you sent me the story If you go to the FEMA...

Hurricane Steering and stalling, Lithium, North Carolina, Helene, radar anomalies, Maui method, and our evil government — connecting the dots

Kamala Harris doesn’t just want to build more factories in the US if elected president. She also wants to help secure steady supplies of materials to fuel them. A recent promise that embodies this approach is her proposed establishment of a "national reserve" of critical minerals such as cobalt, lithium, and nickel — the crucial building blocks in everything from electric vehicle batteries to jet engines to medical devices.

China-Africa relations have deepened over the past two decades, characterised by increased economic cooperation, investment and infrastructure development. China is now Africa’s largest trading partner, with partnerships focused on building roads, railways and energy projects. As the ninth Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) kicks off this week in Beijing, a new, green theme is shaping their relationship: the global renewable energy race. We asked Lauren Johnston, a development economist with expertise in China-Africa relations, to provide some insights into this development as it positions both regions as key players in the global shift towards green energy. How is the race...

A lithium-ion battery was behind a Thursday night fire in Auburn. According to the Auburn Fire Department, the call came in just before 10:30p of a fire on Liberty St. While en route, units were told that explosions were observed in the kitchen and the residents could still be inside. Once on scene, crews had the fire under control within ten minutes. No one was injured and three cats were rescued; however, four adults were displaced. It has been determined by fire investigators that a battery charging on the kitchen counter was behind the blaze. This is the second fire...

Charging lithium-ion batteries at high currents just before they leave the factory is 30 times faster and increases battery lifespans by 50%, according to a study at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center. A lithium-ion battery’s very first charge is more momentous than it sounds. It determines how well and how long the battery will work from then on – in particular, how many cycles of charging and discharging it can handle before deteriorating.In a study published today in Joule, researchers at the SLAC-Stanford Battery Center report that giving batteries this first charge at unusually high currents increased their average lifespan by...

A camera inside a house caught this bad (but fortunate) dog in the act of burning down his owner’s house, and now fire officials are using this video as a cautionary tale against the “dangers of lithium-ion batteries” and rechargeable electronics (click image to watch on X): ...the fire was “destructive” and caused “significant damage” to the home but miraculously, no one was hurt, and the three pets seen in the video all got out of the home through a doggie door; firefighters also took the opportunity to remind people of this: Lithium-ion batteries can explode and spark fires when...

The 18650-format potassium-ion battery was launched at the 14th annual Beyond Lithium Conference at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. - Group1 ============================================================================================ The vast majority of our portable electronic gadgets, and the new wave of electric transportation, are powered by lithium batteries. Texas-based startup Group1 has developed a more sustainable alternative, and has now launched the world's first 18650 potassium-ion battery. Group1 was co-founded in 2021 by battery tech veterans, including Leigang Xue who currently serves as Chief Product Officer but previously worked in the lab of 2019 Nobel Laureate and battery pioneer Dr. John Goodenough at University...

A team of researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has announced the creation of a so-called super battery made from rocks, a technology that may one day replace Lithium Ion batteries used in electric vehicle production. The team claims their discovery would lead to cleaner, safer, and longer-lasting batteries that don’t rely on rare metals or end up as toxic waste. According to the DTU team behind the battery’s creation, the key to their entry into energy storage lies in the simplicity of the materials involved. More specifically, their super battery is based on potassium and sodium silicates,...

There just are no words to describe what happens when these lithium-ion battery thingees of damn near any size get froggy and go fiery. Yeah, it's spectacular but I sure as hell don't want to be anywhere near them. The latest horrible mishap was this morning in Korea, at a Li-ion battery factory in an industrial center southwest of Seoul. Multiple powerful explosions set a lithium battery factory on fire in South Korea on Monday, killing 22 workers, most of them Chinese nationals, as it burned out of control for nearly six hours, fire officials said.The blaze ripped through a...

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland acknowledged Tuesday that the Biden administration’s climate agenda, which is reliant on global critical mineral supply chains, is strengthening China. During a House Appropriations Committee hearing on her agency’s proposed 2024 budget, Haaland was repeatedly grilled about the administration’s environmental policies blocking further domestic production of critical minerals and opening the door to further reliance on Chinese-sourced minerals. In one exchange with Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., Haaland affirmed that green energy sources “deepen” reliance on Chinese imports. “I’m telling you right now that 63% of rare earth mining [occurs in China],” Reschenthaler stated. “By deductive reasoning,...

Idaho farmers are indeed facing significant challenges related to water access. The Idaho Department of Water Resources (IDWR) issued a curtailment order for eastern Idaho irrigators who were found to be noncompliant with a state-approved mitigation plan. This order was scheduled to go into effect recently. The curtailment order impacts about 6,400 junior groundwater rights holders who pump water from the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer. This aquifer supplies water to the Twin Falls Canal Co, which has senior water rights. The projected shortfall of water to the Twin Falls Canal Co is approximately 74,100-acre-feet. To put this in perspective, an...

CHANCAY, Peru—In this serene town on South America’s Pacific coast, China is building a megaport that could challenge U.S. influence in a resource-rich region that Washington has long considered its backyard.... ...The U.S. worries that China’s control over what could become South America’s first true global commercial hub will allow Beijing to further strengthen its grip over the region’s resources, deepen its influence among America’s closest neighbors and eventually plant its military nearby.... Peru’s Foreign Minister Javier González-Olaechea said...“The United States is present almost everywhere in the world with a lot of initiatives, but not so much in Latin America,”...

Government scientists have shown that they can filter the precious metal from the state's shale gas wastewater: pulling tons of lithium per day, with little left behind. They concluded that Pennsylvania alone could produce nearly half of the total US demand for lithium — starting in the first year — supplying this key compound that's needed to power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles to solar panels. A project on this scale could make Pennsylvania a rust-belt Saudi Arabia, ending US dependence on lithium from China, which now controls 90 percent of the market. People compare it to the Gold...

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has found that pedestrians are twice as likely to be hit by an electric or hybrid car than by a gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicle. The scientists have hypothesized that the relatively quiet operations of an electric vehicle as well as high pedestrian density in noisy urban areas could be major reasons. The study uncovered a pedestrian casualty rate of 5.16 per 100 million miles driven for electric and hybrid vehicles, more than double the 2.4 per 100 million miles recorded for traditional gasoline-powered cars.

It's not a laptop in first class or a cheap Chinese scooter smoking ominously in the plane's cargo hold. Nor is it a massive commercial ship packed to the gills with cars being transported across an ocean that has had one of the EVs parked onboard light off, and now the whole vessel is hopelessly ablaze. It's not another fiery EV in a driveway or garage or the solar panels on a rooftop, even though I have covered all of those. Comments regular Global Traveler turned me on to an ongoing drama in, of all places, San Diego County that...