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Battery demand will continue to drive the #Lithium and #Cobalt markets for years to come, supporting prices for the sought-after minor metals, panelists speaking at this year’s #Indaba mining conference Tuesday said. “Forecasts are unified in their projections as overall demand for battery metals is expected to soar,” according to the panel moderator and general manager at Industrial Metals, Barbara O’Donovan.

Read more at: http://www.platts.com/latest-news/metals/london/battery-demand-to-drive-lithium-cobalt-market-26656704

A #Halifax professor who is working with #Tesla to make better #Lithium-ion batteries has won the $1-million Herzberg prize, #Canada’s top science award.

Dr. Jeff Dahn of Dalhousie University was to receive the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering Tuesday evening in #Ottawa.

Read more at: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/02/07/halifax-professor-wins-1-million-science-prize-for-tesla-battery-research.html

#POSCO produces #Lithium for commercial use for the first time in #Korea. The country’s largest steelmaker has developed its own individual technologies in lithium production for the last seven years.

POSCO held a ceremony for the POSCO lithium extraction factory in #Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, Tuesday. Some 100 company and government officials, including POSCO Chairman and CEO Kwon Oh-joon, #LG Chem President Lee Ung-beom, #Samsung SDI CEO Cho Nam-seong and Gwangyang Mayor Jeong Hyun-bok, participated in the event.

Read more at: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/tech/2017/02/693_223461.html

The 17 materials, known as #RareEarth elements (#REE), are essential to the production of the high-performance permanent magnets used in both those systems, as well as in motors and missiles, GPS systems, satellite imaging, night vision goggles, and consumer products like smartphones and flat television screens. And for precisely the reasons Candidate #Trump cited for the decline of #American manufacturing and the loss of #US jobs, #China is now in a position to cut off our supply of processed rare earth elements if it feels Trump is pushing too hard on trade and economic issues—or anything else.

“Absolutely, China could cut off the supply,” said Jeff Green, a defense industry analyst in Washington, D.C. “Processing rare earths is the end of the hose. China controls the spigot the hose is attached to.”

Read more at: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/02/03/chinas-secret-trump-card-could-beijing-deprive-our-military-critical-defense-components.html

In his one-to-one meeting in the #Kremlin on Tuesday, #Vladimir #Potanin highlighted to President #Putin that #Norilsk #Nickel will boost production and cut emissions as part of a major modernization effort.

Read more at: https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology-industry-and-energy/2017/02/potanin-tells-putin-he-will-make-nickel-industry-greater-cleaner

A #NASA study of twin brothers has offered new insights into the stress of space travel on the body — including genetic differences between #ScottKelly, the twin who spent nearly a year in space, and his brother Mark, who stayed on #Earth.

Read more at: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/twins-genetic-differences-scott-kelly-nasa-space-travel-1.3958690

To produce the #Graphene, soybean oil is heated in a tube furnace for about 30 minutes where it decomposes into #Carbon building blocks on a foil made of #Nickel.

It is then rapidly cooled and diffuses on the surface of the foil into a thin rectangle of graphene film, about five centimetres by two centimetres and one nanometre thick (about 80,000 times thinner than a human hair).

Read more at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-31/scientists-cook-up-super-strong-graphene-out-of-soybean-oil/8223686

#Tesla Motors Inc. is making a huge bet that millions of small batteries can be strung together to help kick fossil fuels off the grid.

Three massive battery storage plants—built by Tesla, #AESCorp., and #AltagasLtd. —are all officially going live in southern #California at about the same time. Any one of these projects would have been the largest battery storage facility ever built. Combined, they amount to 15 percent of the battery storage installed planet-wide last year.

Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-30/tesla-s-battery-revolution-just-reached-critical-mass

Cute Circuit have designed the dress, which can change colour and design, in conjunction with scientists at the National #Graphene Institute in #Manchester and intu #Trafford Centre.

Graphene, which has been hailed as a “wonder material”, is tougher than a diamond but stretchable like rubber.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-38750352

“In December it was around $US31,500 a tonne for #Cobalt metal, it is now sitting around $US36,000 and the predictions are it will continue to rise,” he said.

It is yet to receive the wide spread public notice that #Lithium has in recent years, despite lithium-ion batteries containing more #Cobalt than lithium.

Read more at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-25/wa-cobalt-project-poised-for-slice-of-battery-storage-pie/8187296