Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. has become the first commercial producer of so-called ‘heavy’ rare earths outside China, refining dysprosium oxide at its facility in Malaysia, it said in a statement. The production of dysprosium, used in high performance magnets for renewables and electric vehicles, marks a major milestone for the Australian company which already produces light rare earths for smart-phones and defense applications.
April 18 (Reuters) – The White House on Friday said it will fast-track permitting for 10 mining projects across the United States as part of President Donald Trump’s push to expand critical minerals production.
The projects – which would supply copper, antimony and other minerals – have been granted FAST-41 status, a federal initiative launched in 2015 to streamline approvals of critical infrastructure.
President Trump said Monday he wants to strike a deal with Ukraine whereby Kyiv would supply the United States with rare earth minerals in exchange for American aid, offering the clearest sign yet of his transactional approach to supporting the war-torn nation.
“We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine, where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things,” Mr. Trump said from the Oval Office, where he was signing executive orders. “We want a guarantee.”
Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/world/europe/trump-ukraine-rare-earth-minerals.html
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.
Read more at: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2025/01/31/2003831089
Mercedes-Benz has partnered with an Australian company to become the first car manufacturer worldwide to close the loop on batteries with its own in-house recycling facility.
The battery recycling plant in Kuppenheim, southern Germany has an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process that will recover valuable and scarce raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt to then be used in new batteries for future all-electric Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
The plant has an annual capacity of 2500 tonnes. Unlike existing established processes, the expected recovery rate of the plant is more than 96 per cent.
Read more at: https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/mercedes-benz-opens-its-own-battery-recycling-factory/
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.
Read more at: https://www.anl.gov/article/scientists-find-new-way-to-enhance-durability-of-lithium-batteries
Chilean state miner Codelco and the world’s No. 2 lithium producer SQM struck a pivotal deal on Friday over a joint venture that will reshape the Andean country’s lithium sector and give the state a front-line role in developing the key electric vehicle battery metal.
The new entity will let SQM boost output through 2060 in the Salar de Atacama, one of the world’s most prized areas for extracting lithium.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/chiles-codelco-sqm-finalize-key-lithium-deal-2024-05-31/
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden-Harris Administration celebrated Earth Day on Monday. They announced $7 billion in solar grants that could make the upfront cost of installing residential rooftop solar panels low-cost or free for low-income neighborhoods. The money will be distributed to 60 different nonprofit, state, city, and Tribal agencies.
Read more at: https://theblackwallsttimes.com/author/britny-cordera/
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is providing a shot of energy into America’s flagging electric-vehicle industry.
The Biden administration is offering a $2.26 billion loan to help Lithium Americas Corp. develop a Nevada lithium deposit that’s the country’s largest.
The conditional loan from the US Department of Energy will provide the vast majority of the capital needed to fund the first phase of development, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement Thursday.
Read more at: https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ev-lithium-mine-nevada-10f84b74
Australia classified nickel as a “critical mineral” on Friday, opening the way for the crisis-hit industry to access billions of dollars in cheap government loans, as its prime minister prepared wider policy support for the green energy industry.
Australia wants to build a battery chemicals industry to reap more value from its mineral wealth, but the nickel sector is facing thousands of job cuts after a jump in Indonesian supply saw prices plunge 40% in a year.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/australia-lists-nickel-critical-mineral-unlock-billions-support-2024-02-16/
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