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Just last week, we highlighted the surge in EV technology and its implications for mineral resource supply and demand.  A timely subject – as evidenced by the fact that the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy held a “Full Committee Hearing “to Examine Energy Storage Technologies” this week.

Simon Moores, Managing Director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and member of the ARPN panel of experts, was invited to testify on opportunities and risks in the energy storage supply chain. In his testimony, Moores outlined the “rise of the lithium ion battery megafactories,” and shared Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s assessment of the development of the two largest growth markets for which these lithium ion batteries will be targeted – EV and stationary/utility storage, which Moores characterized as the “two uses that underpin the energy storage revolution.”

Said Moores:

“Both markets are in their infancy. However, as these markets mature over the next 10 years, the scale of application and its disruptive effect on established auto and energy industries will be unprecedented.”

Moores then discussed the critical raw material inputs fueling lithium ion technologies — Lithium, Graphite, Cobalt and Nickel — with an eye towards the United States’ current and prospective role in these respective markets. While outlining opportunities, Moores also warned of great risks:

“The demands EV manufacturers are placing on raw material miners to chemical processors and cathode manufacturers are huge – they are being asked to increase their business footprint by 5-10 times in a 7-year period. At present, there is little desire to share this capital and commercial risk of building new mines or expanding their business to meet this new demand. 

Major auto manufacturers will eventually have to conclude that supply chain partnerships and capital investment is the only way to secure lithium, graphite, cobalt, nickel or lithium ion battery cells. But this decision-making process is slow for players outside of China and risks derailing any form of revolution in the energy storage industry.”

He argued that necessary investment is still falling short and “needs to be 10 times larger to create a new blueprint for a post-2030 world.”

Concluded Moores:

“This energy storage revolution is global and unstoppable. For countries and corporations, positioning themselves accordingly to take advantage of this should be of paramount importance and longer term (~10 year) decisions need to be made.”

Here’s hoping that his testimony resonates with Members of Congress and helps deepen the conversation about a much needed comprehensive mineral resource strategy.

To read Moores’s full testimony, click here. Video footage of the hearing will be made available on the committee’s website as well.

A material long hailed as being on the cutting edge of materials science, Graphene is making headlines again. And, fitting for fall and people gearing up for Halloween, it involves everyone’s favorite creepy crawlies – arachnids. 
Researchers at the University of Trento in Italy have found that spiders fed with graphene and carbon nanotubes, which had been added to their drinking water, produced silk that was five times stronger, making the webs they built as strong as carbon fibers and Kevlar, which are considered the strongest materials on Earth, according to a recent article in Futurism.   

The unique properties and versatility of Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms, prompted the European Commission to designate the material an FET – a “Future & Emerging Technologies” Flagship, dedicating a 10-year, 1 billion Euro research and innovation initiative to Graphene.  

The Italian researchers’ discovery is another case in point of how Materials Science is finding new uses for materials, thus shifting the paradigms of resource supply and demand. 

Graphite, from which Graphene is derived is also a key material we will need for next-gen energy storage systems. Meanwhile, the U.S. currently produces zero Graphite, with the last American Graphite mine having closed 25 years ago. Once again, the U.S. finds itself 100% import dependent, relying to a great extent on Chinese supplies of Graphite to meet domestic needs. 

We may not be trapped in webs built by Graphene-doped spiders anytime soon, but the possibilities of harnessing the potential of this discovery seem endless. We are, however, already entangled in a web of foreign mineral resource dependencies, which represent a “clear and present danger” for the U.S., as ARPN’s Dan McGroarty recently outlined in his commentary for Investor’s Business Daily.  It’s time our policy makers took note. 

ARPN followers know it’s the elephant in the room. China. Already vast and resource-rich, the country has demonstrated an insatiable appetite for the world’s mineral resources and has pursued an aggressive strategy to gain access to the materials needed to meet the world’s largest population’s resource needs. Thus, it comes as no surprise that China [...]

In his testimony before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources earlier this week, ARPN Principal Dan McGroarty warned of the challenges of our growing dependence on foreign mineral resources.  McGroarty contrasted his mineral resource outlook with that of the energy side, where we are witnessing the a remarkable resurgence and “emergence of a [...]

At ARPN, we have long highlighted the important but oft-overlooked nexus between resource policy and geopolitics.   The latest case in point is South Korea, which, as ARPN President Daniel McGroarty points out in his latest opinion piece for Fox News, is navigating murky waters “talking sunshine and Rare Earths as North Korean war clouds gather.” For decades, [...]

The New Year is now a little over a week old and the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States is just around the corner.  And while some are still dwelling on 2016 (we offered our post mortem at the end of the year), the time has come to look at what’s in store. One of [...]

ARPN expert and Benchmark Minerals Managing Director Simon Moores hosted a great event on critical minerals and their applications in energy storage technology in Washington, DC last month.  He graciously allowed us to share his introductory presentation on “Lithium ion’s role in the Energy Storage Revolution: The impact on raw materials.” Focusing on Lithium, Graphite [...]

It may be its most well-known use, but Graphite today is at the core of more than just your pencil – it is at the core of 21st Century consumer technology.  Just ask Elon Musk. The Tesla Motors CEO and futurist recently insinuated that the label “Lithium-Ion battery” may actually be a misnomer for the batteries that power [...]

Last week, we highlighted what has been one of the bright spots in the metals and minerals sphere in recent months – Lithium.  Potentially one of the most important critical materials of our time because of its application in battery technology, its rise to stardom has cast a shadow on another material that may be [...]

ARPN followers are well-versed on the dangers of foreign resource dependency – a concern highlighted by Tesla Motors’ announcement earlier this year that the EV manufacturer will build a massive Giga-Factory in the American Southwest, with the goal of doubling global EV battery output by 2020. As ARPN’ers know, the next question is: Where will [...]