Posted on 02/20/2018 6:29:48 PM PST by artichokegrower
The road to an imminent electric vehicle future has hit a speed bump one made of cobalt.
An essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries that power millions of smartphones as well as plug-in electric cars, cobalt is in heavy demand.
(Excerpt) Read more at sandiegouniontribune.com ...
More significantly EVs have an energy/weight problem... and a vote/subsidy dollar problem.
Both are too low.
According to leftists, these are zero emission vehicles. They conveniently ignore the fact that oil was used to product these vehicles. All the plastics, rubber, lubricants, paints come from oil. The machining was done by machines dependent on electricity produced from coal and oil. All the components were produced likewise, and shipped via fossil-fueled transport vehicles.
So they envision a future without reliance on fossil fuels? Try building that electric vehicle solely with solar or wind power, including the components.
Because it is so easy to move pollution and child labor out of your country (or even out of your state) where you don’t have to see it or be bothered by it.
Solar cells? The magical “green” panacea for clean energy...until you read how terribly filthy the manufacture of solar cells is in China.
Coal in California? No way. Let’s import coal power from other states and let them breathe the bad air. That way, we can go on bragging about how “green” we are.
Child labor in cobalt mines? That’s far away in Africa, out of sight, out of mind. Liberals can’t be bothered by such things when they are driving Priuses to save the earth.
I drove a bunch of folks around on a bird watching excursion a couple weeks ago. Two of them soon found out they were each real died-in-the-wool socialists. As I was driving, I hears about all the evils of the United States and the wonders of Ecuador and it’s communist president. What an experience being able to eavesdrop on those two moronic kooks. If I hadn’t been in such a good mood, I would have dropped them in the marsh at the far back of the wildlife refuge and told them to hoof it out.
Do all lithium battery designs require cobalt?
Even the newer lithium polymer battery designs?
Cobalt is a problem element for nuclear reactors. Used to harden metal used in values the wear products get activated by neutron flux and become radioactive.
More than 90% of cobalt come as byproduct of copper and nickel. Yes, it’s a BYproduct!
There is temporary less cobalt because copper and nickel are now so dirt cheap that few are willing to produce them.
So no, there is no cobalt problem. Never has been and never will be. There is only just another baseless Malthusian scare by the greenies.
But that’s fine, let’s repeat the lies and let them taste their own medicine. I am perfectly ok with anything which derails the electric vehicule taxpayers’-money-sucking gravy train.
BTW, there has been no EV “revolution”. If such meaningless babbling, typical of letists, is to be used, then, it would be much more right to talk about a SUV revolution than an EV revolution.
Baja - but not to worry - Swiss company GlenCore controls the majority of world cobalt - or did in 2011. Canada has a bunch, too. The 2011 article below complains that Chinese cobalt isn’t refined enough; maybe they’ve improved?
from 2011:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/425273/high-tech-demand-sparks-return-of-cobalt-mines/
I have known about this for some time.
The cobalt and lithium deposits on Earth are found in some of the most hostile to civilization place you can imagine.
Afghanistan, for instance, would become the ‘Saudi Arabia of Lithium’ if they ever got to actually mine the stuff without the Taliban and ISIS killing them. That may be the basis for the Taliban and ISIS tenacity in those Afghan mountains, they know the riches that would be theirs to exploit...................
The Chinese scramble to mine Africa | MINING.com
http://www.mining.com/feature-chinas-scramble-for-africa/
Copper; Iron Ore; Diamond; ... The forms of mining deals that China employs in Africa are also very diverse ... IntelligenceMine is global mining market intelligence ...
~~~~
Digging deeper: Chinese cross-border mining M&A steals the
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=b2be63d4-16f7-4927-bfc1-8de4b9639448
Digging deeper: Chinese cross-border mining M ... a China story. The country has served as one of ... towards non-ferrous metals like gold, lithium and copper.
“So no, there is no cobalt problem. Never has been and never will be. There is only just another baseless Malthusian scare by the greenies.”
Indeed! Thank you for posting that.
This peak cobalt scare is just like the “peak oil” nonsense that anti-development leftists spouted for decades — until they came up with the “climate change” story. The price system & free enterprise will fix this “problem” (aka, opportunity) without breaking a sweat.
Don’t forget mud, Democrats are big into mud packs and mud pies.
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