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Earlier this month, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of tech giant Tesla, made headlines with his call on global mining companies to boost production of nickel, a key component in EV battery technology.

“Any mining companies out there … wherever you are in the world, please mine more nickel,” he said, adding “Tesla will give you a giant contract for a long period of time if you mine nickel efficiently and in an environmentally sensitive way. (…) Don’t wait for nickel to go back to some high point you experienced five years ago (…).”

Against the backdrop of Musk’s call to action to miners, Shane Lasley, publisher of Metal Tech News, entertains the question of whether Tesla gigamines might be added to the front of the company’s supply chain in a new piece for the publication.

Lasley argues that while Musk’s offer seems to imply that his preference would be for the mining sector to supply nickel, there are “subtle clues” indicating that he would be willing to set up a Tesla mining operation if needed.

Providing context, Lasley writes:

“While Tesla can easily expand battery production by simply building more gigafactories and squeezing more efficiencies out of the enormous facilities already in operation, getting the raw materials to these factories could be the challenge.

This is because Tesla is not the only EV and lithium-ion battery company driving massive new demand for nickel, graphite, lithium, cobalt, and manganese. Every major automobile manufacturer on Earth is rolling out new electric and hybrid models, and new players are emerging in both the EV and lithium-ion battery sectors.”

With the World Bank forecasting that production of metals and minerals like graphite, lithium and cobalt will have to increase by nearly 500 percent by 2050 to meet global demand for renewable energy technology, it comes as no surprise that EV manufacturers are kicking their search for raw materials into high gear. However, as Lasley points out, “there have been no reports of automakers getting directly involved in the business of mining … at least not yet.”

Musk hinted at the possibility of throwing Tesla’s hat into the mining business ring in 2019, but so far, seems to intend to lean on miners to provide necessary supplies. That may change, however, because as Musk stated last year, “[Tesla will] do whatever we have to, to ensure that we can scale at the fastest rate possible.”

Those of us interested to find out more, should probably create a calendar item for September 22 — Battery Day.

Writes Lasley:

“Slated to be held in Freemont, California on Sept. 22, Battery Day is an event where Tesla is expected to showcase its batteries and introduce new technologies. And, given Musk’s prelude, we are likely to learn a lot more about the company’s plans to source the minerals and metals at the front end of its gigafactory supply chain.”

Read Lasley’s full piece here.

The coronavirus pandemic may have torn through communities, brought public life to a halt, thrown markets into turmoil, and laid bare the extent of our complex and deep critical mineral resource dependencies. It has not  — thankfully, considering the materials challenges we’re up against — stopped the ongoing materials science revolution.

As policy makers and industry stakeholders look to address our mineral resource supply chain vulnerabilities during and beyond the pandemic, researchers are forging ahead to provide innovative solutions that not only transform the way we use certain metals and minerals, but have the potential help alleviate our over-reliance issues. 

We have outlined several promising research breakthroughs and projects as part of our Materials Science Profiles of Progress series here. 

In the same vein, the Department of Energy has stepped up its efforts to promote collaboration between its research hubs and the private sector to look for ways to diversify mineral resource supply, develop substitutes and drive recycling of critical minerals and rare earth elements. 

In a recent piece for Real Clear Energy, U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouilette outlines some of the initiatives spearheaded by DoE and its research hubs, ranging from “identifying and extracting critical minerals and REEs from previously untapped sources such as our vast coal reserves,” over capturing lithium from waste product generated by geothermal power production to developing “high-performance magnets used in renewable energy technologies and advanced motors with reduced REE content.”

With regards to critical materials and REE recycling, Brouilette cites two promising developments:

“The first involves using a high-speed shredder that turns old computer hard drives into scrap containing significant amounts of REE content. Our scientists apply an acid-free recycling process to the scrap that recovers REEs with greater than 99-percent purity, reducing the steps involved in the previous process and lowering recycling costs.

The second involves recovering nickel, cobalt, and manganese from disassembled electric vehicle battery packs. A recent American Manganese Inc. project, on which DOE partnered, generated recycled products with purities greater than 98-percent of the 3 critical minerals.”

In a time when keeping up with the headlines is anxiety-inducing for many, it is nice to see that some positive developments are on the horizon.  They may seem wonky, but their importance should not be underestimated, because, as Brouilette concludes in his Real Clear Energy piece: 

“Our over-reliance on countries like China that are not reliable trading partners for critical supply chains threatens our economic and national security. We must reclaim our independence over critical mineral and rare earth element supplies to secure a prosperous future.”

It’s that time of the year again – Independence Day is upon us.  This year, things are different, though. If you’re like us, it kind of snuck up on you, and it took seeing the booths selling fireworks in the parking lots to realize it’s July already.  After all, we just came off the longest month of [...]

In a timely hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, witnesses discussed the urgency of securing U.S. mineral supply chains in a post-COVID context.  Committee Chair Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who has long been an advocate of comprehensive mineral resource policy reform set the stage arguing that “[t]he pandemic has brought [...]

***posted by Daniel McGroarty*** As demand for renewable energy continues to grow despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Department of State hopes to expand the Energy Resource Governance Initiative (ERGI) – an initiative launched last year by the United States and joined by ten other countries, including Canada, Australia and Brazil – aimed at improving supply chain security [...]

***Posted by Daniel McGroarty*** “The current coronavirus pandemic has exposed significant supply chain challenges associated with our over-reliance on foreign (and especially Chinese) raw materials,” — writes ARPN’s Sandra Wirtz in a new piece for The Economic Standard:   “PPE has become the poster child, but whether it’s smart phone technology, solar panels, electric vehicles, or [...]

Earlier this month, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), long one of the leaders on Capitol Hill pushing for a comprehensive overhaul of our nation’s mineral resource policy, addressed the challenges of our nation’s over-reliance on foreign – and especially China-sourced critical metals and minerals against the backdrop of the current Coronavirus pandemic in a post [...]

At ARPN, we have long argued that the current push towards a lower-carbon future is not possible without mining, as green energy technology relies heavily on a score of critical metals and minerals. The World Bank’s latest report, entitled “The Mineral Intensity of the Clean Energy Transition,” published earlier this week in the context of the [...]

Testifying before the U.S Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in February 2019, ARPN expert panel member and managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Simon Moores sounded the alarm on the supply chains of metals and minerals that are key components of battery technology and energy storage. Arguing that we were in the middle [...]

Last week, USGS released its 43rd Mineral Commodity Summaries – a comprehensive snapshot of global mineral production which gives us a window into where we stand as a nation in terms of mineral resource security.   Perhaps most instructive from an ARPN perspective is the chart depicting U.S. Net Import Reliance — previously casually referred to as [...]