Free Republic

Experts: U.S. could enter the lithium market in a very big way. U.S. must reduce its reliance on lithium imports from the lithium triangle. Geothermal technologies could unlock large lithium deposits in the U.S The US could enter the lithium market in a very big way. At least, that’s what some experts are claiming. The global demand for lithium is on the rise, especially in the US. This should come as no surprise, as lithium-ion batteries are essential to electric vehicles and energy storage. Still, the question remains: is the US capable of breaking its reliance on lithium imports from...

Best known therapeutically as a treatment for bipolar disorder, lithium has long intrigued researchers with its potential age-defying properties. The element has been shown in lab experiments to extend the lifespan of fruit flies and roundworms, while observational studies have suggested tap water naturally laced with trace amounts of lithium might improve human longevity. Researchers at The University of Toledo have recently found that low-dose lithium acts as a powerful anti-aging agent in the kidneys. However, researchers have found that one of the major molecular targets of lithium is GSK3-beta—an enzyme that is associated with cellular aging in the kidney...

You can always count on government to make things more expensive when they claim they want to help make things more affordable. For example, President Biden and his green commandos are helping drive critical electric battery component LITHIUM through the roof! Lithium hydroxide futures prices are through the roof making already expensive electric cars even MORE expensive. So much for making electric cars affordable! Of course, The Federal government will now have to subsidize GM and Ford and increase Federal tax credits to encourage consumers to purchase outrageously expensive electric cars. Thanks Joe for issuing your enactment of the Defense...

NEWRY, Maine (AP) — The race is on to produce more lithium in the United States. The U.S. will need far more lithium to achieve its clean energy goals — and the industry that mines, extracts and processes the chemical element is poised to grow. But it also faces a host of challenges from environmentalists, Indigenous groups and government regulators. Although lithium reserves are distributed widely across the globe, the U.S. is home to just one active lithium mine, in Nevada. The element is critical to development of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are seen as key to reducing climate-changing carbon...

The race to a low-carbon future via electric vehicles already comes with a hefty price tag. But that price tag may enlarge even more in the coming months if the skyrocketing cost of lithium serves as any indication. What are the details? The cost of lithium carbonate — a key ingredient used in the manufacturing of electric vehicle batteries and other low-carbon energy resources such as solar panels — has jumped 95% already in 2022, and is up almost 500% year-over-year. According to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a leading price reporting agency, battery-grade lithium carbonate (EXW China, ≥99.5% Li2CO3) was averaging...

resident Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were roundly mocked by conservatives last week for suggesting that working-class Americans struggling to pay the ever-climbing prices at the pump should consider simply buying an electric vehicle instead. It was the Biden-era equivalent of Marie Antoinette’s (admittedly apocryphal) adage, “Let them eat cake.” Yet this simple solution floated by Democrat elites might just be even more fantastical than expecting average Americans to be in the financial position to switch to an EV as they struggle to afford groceries. Turns out, the U.S. doesn’t only rely on Russia for oil imports —...

For more than a decade, Chinese companies have spent billions of dollars buying out U.S. and European miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s cobalt belt - the world’s richest source of a mineral that has become critical to the global transition to cleaner energy. Now the Chinese firms are running into trouble after a court ordered one of the largest to temporarily cede control of one of its mines. Just one electric vehicle can require between 10 and 30 pounds of cobalt to build its battery, depending on the manufacturer, though Tesla Inc. and other auto makers are now...

**SNIP** The lithium car battery issue is twofold. First, there is clear concern around the level of virgin raw material mining needed for their manufacture. This reliance on metals and minerals as the foundation of this technology presents significant environmental and social issues. However, there are now increased efforts to reduce this through the development of new technologies. **SNIP** Most electric vehicles run on lithium-ion batteries. Each cell of a lithium battery generates electricity when its lithium ions move from one side (the anode) through an electrolyte to the other side (the cathode). The lithium in the anode is cheap...

Australian mining company European Lithium is in the process of securing two promising lithium deposits in Ukraine, aiming to become the largest lithium supplier in Europe and an essential part of an integrated European battery supply chain. The two deposits, discovered and subsequently explored in the 1980s and 1990s, are located in Shevchenkivske in the Donetsk region and in Dobra in the Kirovograd region of western Ukraine. Both sites are said to be “under-explored” according to modern methods and “contain significant expected resources”, according to a statement by the Australian company, who have so far made a name for themselves...

The Felicity Ace was being towed to land when it began to list to starboard in heavy seas about 250 miles off the Portuguese island chain and took on water in heavy seas, according to the ship's manager. The Portuguese navy confirmed that it sank in a location outside of Portugal's territorial waters that is over two miles deep.

Soaring battery metal costs are leading to a renewed interest in ithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Manufacturers are looking to cut cobalt use as they are looking to cut costs and improve their ESG profile. Tesla is making the switch to LFP mandatory in all its markets after a positive reception in the U.S. In the vast majority of cases, technological innovation leads to newer, cheaper, and more efficient designs than their predecessors. But every once in a while, technological progress goes into reverse gear when progress turns out to be turbocharged regress. ... During an investor presentation last year,...

Firefighters are struggling to extinguish a fire that broke out last week on a cargo ship that is carrying thousands of luxury cars and is adrift off the coast of Portugal's Azores islands. A port official said it was unclear when crews would succeed. The vessel, Felicity Ace, which is carrying about 4,000 vehicles including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, some electric with lithium-ion batteries, caught fire in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday. The 22 crew members on board were evacuated on the same day. "The intervention [to put out the blaze] has to be done very slowly,"...

The Liberal government allowed a Chinese state-owned company to bid on a Canadian lithium mining operation without launching a formal national security review into the purchase. As reported by the Globe and Mail, Chinese firm Zijin Mining and Canadian Neo Lithium Corp. have agreed to an acquisition and are close to completing their business deal. The deal has been in the making since October when Zijin Mining first announced that it was looking at buying the Toronto company for a price tag of $960 million. In 2021, Canada categorized lithium as a critical mineral. Lithium is predominantly used to manufacture...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed designating critical habitat for a Nevada wildflower it plans to list as endangered amid a conflict over a mine to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles critical to the Biden administration’s plans to combat climate change. The agency on Wednesday proposed designating critical habitat for Tiehm’s buckwheat on a high-desert ridge near the California line halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. It’s the only place in the world the delicate, 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter) wildflower with yellow blooms is known to exist. It’s also the site where Ioneer USA Corp....

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Wednesday he will create a state-owned company to mine lithium and appeared to suggest he will seek to cancel one of the few existing permits held by a Chinese company. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had said in October that he wants to declare lithium a “strategic mineral” and reserve future exploration and mining to the government. Lithium is a key component of batteries. It hadn’t been clear if he would rely on private companies to do the work, which Mexico has no experience in. But López Obrador said Wednesday that a newly...

The more people I speak with about lithium, the bigger this story gets. Following my previous article — How The U.S. Is Losing The Lithium Industry To China — several readers told me that this battle is already lost. And, I have to admit that the trajectory we are currently on gives little reason to believe that China’s dominance will be threatened any time soon. In today’s article, I want to reiterate two threats to U.S. national security based on the current trajectory. Then, I want to revisit why China jumped ahead of the U.S. Finally, I want to talk...

In order to power all of these EVs, we will need batteries — lots of them. This vital mineral in rechargeable batteries has earned the name “white gold” and the rush is on. But until the 1990s, the U.S. was the leader in lithium production. But there is only one operating lithium mine in the U.S., Albemarle’s Silver Peak in Nevada.

As the world looks to electrify vehicles and store renewable power, one giant challenge looms: what will happen to all the old lithium batteries?... ...In your average battery recycling plant, battery parts are shredded down into a powder, and then that powder is either melted (pyrometallurgy) or dissolved in acid (hydrometallurgy). But Li batteries are made up of lots of different parts that could explode if they're not disassembled carefully. And even when Li batteries are broken down this way, the products aren't easy to reuse.... ...The current shortcomings in Li battery recycling isn't the only reason they are an...

But rushing to replace gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles would hand the keys to the American transportation sector to China, given Beijing’s near-monopoly on rare-earth elements like neodymium and dysprosium, which are used in the high-output motors of most electric vehicles. ... manager at a state-owned rare-earth enterprise based in Ganzhou: “The new company will enforce stricter rules on the production quantity as well as the export volume of rare earths, which may also drive up prices.” In May, the International Energy Agency reported that an electric-vehicle motor requires “upwards of 1 kilogram,” or more than 2 pounds, of rare-earth...

Scientists have taken aim at inactive clumps of lithium that build up over a battery's lifetime and shown how they can be brought back to life to boost the performance of the device. They say this can be achieved simply through tweaks to the charging process, and the approach mightn't just benefit the batteries of today, but unlock next-gen battery designs with far greater densities. The breakthrough comes from a team of scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, who were focused on what they call islands of inactive lithium. These form as batteries...