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Chrystia Freeland’s second budget as finance minister proposes billions of dollars in new spending to incentivize more mining of critical minerals through investments in infrastructure, tax credits for exploration, and funding to help attract the downstream industries that turn those minerals into products such as electric vehicles and battery cells.

Critical minerals include not only the lithium, nickel and cobalt used in batteries, but a far wider array of elements, from copper to manganese. The budget proposes allocating at least $3.8 billion in cash, plus more in tax credits, between now and 2030, to develop a supply chain of critical minerals. Whether that investment sounds like too much money, or far too little, depends on how you view the threats posed by climate change and the urgency of the energy transition.

Much of the strategy outlined in the budget hinges on the idea that creating a supply chain will help attract industrial investment to Canada, and thus boost future economic growth. To that end, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government would spend up to $1.5 billion by 2030 on the infrastructure needed to get those materials from the ground to factories.

Read more at: https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/how-trudeau-proposes-to-make-canada-a-key-supplier-of-critical-minerals

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/