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Chennai: Electric vehicle startup Simple Energy, which is setting up its EV factory at Hosur (Tamil Nadu), will invest $150 million (around Rs 1136.5 crore) on a lithium ion cell manufacturing unit. The company has tied up with US-based battery company C4V for technology and knowhow.

Simple Energy’s flagship product, Simple One, will be produced at Phase I of the company’s manufacturing unit located at Hosur which has an annual production capacity of up to one million units. The factory will be operational in the coming weeks. The company has also commissioned a second plant in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu, which will have a capacity of 12.5 million units annually as part of its Phase 2 ramp up.

Read more at: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/simple-energy-invests-150-mn-on-lithium-ion-cell-factory/articleshow/90693184.cms

NEW DELHI — India has committed to jointly invest $6 million with the Australian government to explore lithium and cobalt mines in Australia over the next six months, in a bid to firm up supplies of key minerals needed to further its electric vehicle plans.

India’s KABIL, a mining joint venture between state-run firms National Aluminium Co, Hindustan Copper Ltd and Mineral Exploration Corp Ltd, has signed a preliminary agreement with Australia’s Critical Minerals Facilitation Office (CMFO), the Indian government said on Tuesday.

The move comes at a time when India is offering $2.4 billion of incentives for companies to build battery cells locally for electric vehicles. Lithium, whose price has surged in the recent days, is a key raw material used to make electric vehicle batteries.

Read more at: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/india-to-invest-in-exploring-lithium-cobalt-mines-in-australia

PARIS, March 16 (Reuters) – French mining group Eramet (ERMT.PA) said on Wednesday it could develop jointly with Suez a recycling facility in France for electric vehicle batteries by 2024.

Eramet, a major producer of nickel and manganese for the steel sector, has focused increasingly on materials for electric vehicles.

In addition to large mine deposits in Indonesia and Argentina, it sees recycling as contributing to its potential to cover 20% of the European Union’s nickel requirements, 25% of the bloc’s lithium needs and 12% of its cobalt demand for EV batteries by 2030.

The joint project would produce black mass, a metal concentrate containing nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium and graphite that is suitable for hydrometallurgical refining.

Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/technology/eramet-suez-eye-ev-battery-recycling-france-by-2024-2022-03-16/

LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – An EU-funded certification scheme using blockchain is being developed for rare earths as automakers demand proof that materials used to make magnets for electric vehicles (EVs) are not linked to toxic pollution.

The system will set global standards and give confidence to consumers demanding sustainable products, two of the organisers told Reuters ahead of an official announcement on Tuesday.

The Circular System for Assessing Rare Earth Sustainability or CSyARES is due to be ready in about three years, the Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA) and Dutch supply chain traceability firm Circularise said.

Read more at: Blockchain rare earth scheme to certify sustainable output for EVs | Reuters

Tesla deployed 27% of the world’s battery nickel, despite the fact that overall LFP accounts for more than a quarter of the kWh hours in all of its vehicles sold last year. Tesla still does not sell LFP-powered models in North America.  

Despite selling half the number of BEVs than Tesla, thanks to the absence of LFP in its line-up, Volkswagen deployed more cobalt and on a relative basis more metals across its brands. That’s in part due to high-performance vehicles like the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron, some of which come equipped with higher nickel NCM batteries where cobalt can represent up to 20% of the metal mix. 

Read more at: CHARTS: Tesla v Volkswagen v BYD – battery power, lithium, nickel, cobalt use – MINING.COM

Efforts to strengthen Canada’s supply chains for critical minerals were undermined last week when our own government decided not to conduct a national security review into the purchase of a Canadian lithium producer by a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

The decision is bizarre. Lithium, which is on a list of 31 minerals that Ottawa says are critical to Canada’s economy, is imperative to modern manufacturing, including large-scale battery storage needed for clean energy transition and, significantly, batteries for the flourishing electric vehicle (EV) industry.

Now the Zijin Mining Group Ltd is cleared to buy Toronto-based Neo Lithium Corp.

China is establishing global dominance of high-tech manufacturing, including EVs, by having state-owned enterprises acquire foreign intellectual property, technologies and assets. Securing access to critical minerals is essential to that mission.

Read more at: Ottawa looks on as China buys Canadian lithium operations | The Star