nickel

We’ve called it “the new black.” The Guardian even went as far as ringing in the “Ion Age.”  Bearing testimony to the growing importance of battery technology, the U.S. Senate will hold a hearing examining the outlook for energy and minerals markets in the 116th Congress on Tuesday, February 5, 2019 with an emphasis on battery technology.

Followers of ARPN will not be surprised to learn that Simon Moores, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s Managing director and member of the ARPN panel of issue experts has been asked – once more – to share their insights on the supply chain for EV lithium ion batteries and the energy storage revolution.

Moores considers the fact that the U.S. Senate Energy committee is holding its second hearing in 14 months on the issue progress, stating: 

“The highest level of US government is taking the risks to its future automotive and energy industries seriously. With the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and the true arrival of battery storage as part of the energy mix, those that have low cost, abundant supply of quality lithium ion batteries will be ahead of the pack.  Right now, China is leading the build out of this lithium ion battery capacity and Benchmark Minerals now forecasts the country to have 68% of global capacity by 2028 while the US presently sits at 11%.

The other key factor in controlling this industry is securing supply chains for lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite anode materials. This is not just about low cost, high volume mining but key skills and know-how to produce chemically engineered battery grade chemicals – commodities for the 21st century.”

The committee has set the hearing for 10:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday, February 5, 2019, and will offer a livestream on its website, where written testimony will also be made available at the time of the hearing.

Valuable and precious, Gold, for example in jewelry, is a popular go-to for gifts during the holidays.  Who knew that gold’s luster would be dimmed by a metal that “scrubs your exhaust,” as the New York Times phrased it?  It may still not end up under many Christmas trees, but Palladium, an “obscure and far less sexy rival” metal for the first time in sixteen years leapfrogged gold in metal market prices last week, hitting a record high last Wednesday.

Writes the New York Times:

“It is an impressive dethroning aided by economic shifts, antipollution legislation, union campaigns by mine workers and global trade negotiations. Until recently, palladium was perhaps best known for sharing a name with several popular entertainment venues and for powering the fictional arc reactor mechanism hooked up to Iron Man’s heart.

Its primary purpose is far less glamorous: More than 80 percent of the world’s palladium is used in the catalytic converters that help vehicles manage their pollutant output.”

Usage in passenger cars – in response to regulatory efforts to reduce tailpipe emissions — has been one of the key drivers of Palladium demand, and while analysts expect a record high demand this year, softening car sales and other factors may dampen demand going forward.   However, considering Palladium is largely a “co-product” metal recovered via Platinum mining in South Africa and Nickel mining in Russia, it is considered extremely rare, which has tightened supply and driven up prices.

U.S. import dependence for the metal is pegged at 45 percent, with our lead suppliers being South Africa, accounting for 30% and Russia accounting for  25% in 2017. According to USGS, the sole domestic PGM-mining company — at one point owned by Russian investors — was sold to a South Africa-based mining company in May 2017. 

Not surprisingly in light of current market developments, Russia – arguably not one of the U.S.’s best trading partners – is looking to step up Palladium production in the coming months.

Thankfully, as part of the Platinum Group Metals, which was included in DOI’s Critical Minerals list earlier this year, Palladium is on the United States’ government radar.  However, we have yet to see comprehensive action to follow the release of the critical minerals list.  With our competitors – led by China and Russia – not sitting idly by in the global resource race, we cannot afford to get complacent, and must implement policies conducive to harnessing our own domestic resource potential.  As we previously argued:

The case of Palladium should be another catalyst (pun intended) for policy makers to formulate policies conducive to domestic mineral resource development.

Earlier this month, members of the Congressional Western Caucus sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and Acting Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Mary Neumayr calling for the inclusion of additional metals and minerals into the draft critical minerals list released by Secretary Zinke [...]

Another week, another great infographic by Visual Capitalist – this time on the “Secret Driver of the Battery Revolution” – Nickel. Long an important base metal because of its alloying capabilities, Nickel’s status as a Gateway Metal, yielding access to tech minerals like Cobalt, Palladium, Rhodium and Scandium – all of which are increasingly becoming [...]

Earlier this month, Simon Moores, Managing Director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and member of the ARPN panel of experts testified before the full U.S. Senate Energy Committee on opportunities and risks in the energy storage supply chain.   We’re titling his observations as Moores’ Law — which is his for the taking, given the placement [...]

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 [...]

You may have caught Elon Musk’s exchange with Daimler on Twitter over investment in EV technology earlier this week. Vacuum giant Dyson has also tossed its hat into the ring announcing that it will spend $2.7 billion to develop an electric car. The headlines are piling up, and it’s no longer a secret that demand [...]

It’s that time of the year again.  And as people are gearing up for the New Year, we are taking the opportunity to take stock of the last twelve months, and want to highlight a few select notable developments of relevance to ARPN followers. From a mineral resource policy perspective, we saw some positive developments [...]

Over the course of the past few months, we have featured two classes of metals and minerals, which we believe deserve more attention than they are currently being awarded.  Expanding on the findings of our 2012 “Gateway Metals and the Foundations of American Technology” report, in which we focused on a group of five “Gateway” metals which [...]

Over the course of the last few weeks, we reviewed Nickel and its co-products Cobalt, Palladium, Rhodium and Scandium as part of our trip “Through the Gateway.” We’ve established that the importance of each of the co-products is growing as the revolution in materials science advances. Meanwhile, our import dependence for each of the co-products is [...]