A Blog for Browsing Mining, Mineral Processing, and Metals Info

It is one of the defining competitions of our age: The countries that can make batteries for electric cars will reap decades of economic and geopolitical advantages.

The only winner so far is China.

Despite billions in Western investment, China is so far ahead — mining rare minerals, training engineers and building huge factories — that the rest of the world may take decades to catch up.

Even by 2030, China will make more than twice as many batteries as every other country combined, according to estimates from Benchmark Minerals, a consulting group.

Here’s how China controls each step of lithium-ion battery production, from getting the raw materials out of the ground to making the cars, and why these advantages are likely to last.

China controls:	41% of the world’s cobalt
	28% of lithium
	6% of the world’s nickel
	78% of graphite
	5% of manganese
REFINING:	95% of manganese
	73% of cobalt
	70% of graphite
	67% of lithium
	63% of nickel
Components making:	74% of separators
	77% of cathodes
	92% of anodes
Cathodes making:	73% of NMC cathodes
	99% of LFP cathodes
Battery Cells	66% of the world’s battery cells

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/16/business/china-ev-battery.html