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Partner #BHP’s exit will not affect #Kabanga project, says #Tembo #Nickel

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

A group of construction workers in safety vests and helmets gathered at a mining site, with a large 'Ni' sign in the background, signifying nickel mining activities.

Dar es Salaam. The planned groundbreaking ceremony for the Kabanga Nickel Project, set for October this year, will go ahead as scheduled despite BHP Group’s decision t sell its 17 percent stake in Kabanga Nickel Limited (KNL) to Lifezone Metals Limited.

Lifzone, the parent company of KNL, announced on July 18 that it had completed a definitive agreement with BHP Billiton (UK) DDS Limited to acquire the mining giant’s entire equity interest in KNL. As a result, Lifezone now owns 100 percent of KNL, which in turn holds an 84 percent stake in Tembo Nickel Corporation Limited (TNCL) – the operating equity for the Kabanga project.

Western #Canada holds potential to become a ‘critical minerals processing behemoth,’ expert says

Posted on June 26, 2025 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

A group of battery metal exploration companies and startups says it has a plan to turbocharge Canada’s critical minerals sector by building out “midstream” mineral processing facilities in Western Canada.

Two reports published by the Battery Metals Association of Canada, which hired analysts at the Transition Accelerator to consult with their members, identified nine critical minerals — copper, graphite, iron, nickel, lithium, phosphate, rare earths and vanadium — and five regions where they see big opportunities for major projects.

For example, British Columbia has at least four producing copper mines, which all ship their copper concentrate overseas, primarily to China, because there are no smelters in Western Canada. Building a copper smelter could encourage copper production and exploration while also creating higher-value products to sell, the reports said.

“If you wanted to put together a critical minerals processing behemoth anywhere in the world, the assets that we have in Alberta to do that are just phenomenal,” Bentley Allan, a professor of political economy at Johns Hopkins University and a principal at Transition Accelerator, said. “It has the chemical processing expertise, the clean power resources, other kinds of machining and precision instruments, which make Alberta a really incredible place to do this.”

#Canada needs CAD 65 billion mining investment to meet demand: study

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng One comment

Canada needs to increase investment in critical minerals by CAD 65 billion ($48 billion) to meet expected growth in both domestic and global demand, a new study finds.

According to the Canadian Climate Institute, the country should open more than 30 new mines of six priority minerals – copper, nickel, lithium, graphite, cobalt, and rare earth elements – between now and 2040. Upstream investment of CAD 30 billion would be enough to meet domestic demand, rising to CAD 65 billion to produce enough to export.

If mining output does not ramp up, Canada would miss out on a CAD 12 billion opportunity from domestic industry alone, researchers warn.

Yet, investor confidence in the critical minerals space has been wavering amid persistent price volatility, Kallanish writes. The Canadian Climate Institute argues that governments can help build certainty by sharing risks through targeted policies and programmes, such as equity investments, offtake agreements, or contracts for difference.

Note: Canada is a resource-rich country. Canada does not have to go to another continent for critical mineral. Canada needs investment and technology development (refining and recycling).

Bring the investment to Canada.

#Nigeria to open two #Chinese-backed #Lithium processing plants this year

#India approves US$1.9bn scheme for #CriticalMinerals

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

India’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a 163 billion-rupee (US$1.9 billion) program to secure supplies of a range of minerals used mainly in battery, electronics, defense and agriculture sectors.

The National Critical Mineral Mission will focus on local mining and processing of 24 vital minerals, as well as acquisitions of mining blocks overseas, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters.

The initiative, which will also give a thrust to the recycling of materials such as lithium, cobalt, potash and graphite, will help reduce the country’s reliance on imports, he said in New Delhi. The nation relies almost entirely on overseas shipments for energy transition materials, including cobalt, nickel, lithium and copper ore and concentrates, with China being a key supplier.

#Scientists find new way to enhance durability of #Lithium batteries.

Posted on June 12, 2024 by Nanthakumar Victor Emmanuel, P.Eng Leave a comment

Safe and efficient energy storage is important for American prosperity and security. With the adoption of both renewable energy sources and electric vehicles on the rise around the world, it is no surprise that research into a new generation of batteries is a major focus. Researchers have been developing batteries with higher energy storage density and, thus, longer driving range. Other goals include shorter charging times, greater tolerance to low temperatures and safer operation.

One of the more promising such batteries has a lithium-containing cathode supplemented with nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC). At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, a team of scientists has recently developed a new coating method for NMC cathodes with high nickel content, which boosts the energy density substantially. The cathode is the positively charged battery component that supplies lithium ions that shuffle between it and the battery’s negatively charged electrode, called the anode, during cycling.

The repeated charging of batteries under conditions of high voltage and rapid recharge leads to structural instability and breakdown over time. To overcome the problem, Argonne scientists developed a new coating that allows the cathode particles to withstand the fracturing in their crystalline structure that had previously occurred upon cycling. They call this material “epitaxial entropy-assisted coating,” or EEC for short. According to Xu, “entropy assistance” ensures that the coating helps to prevent the breakdown of the material beneath it due to a thermodynamic effect, which leads materials to naturally become destabilized over time.