Battery Metals

Hitachi Energy has partnered with Nevada Vanadium, a company developing what could be the US’ first-ever primary vanadium source, to power the mine entirely from renewable energy.

Nevada Vanadium Mining Corp (Nevada Vanadium) is developing Gibellini, an open pit mine in the western US state’s Battle Mountain region.

The company anticipates the start of operations at the facility in 2024. A recently completed preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the site demonstrated that an after-tax 25.4% internal rate of return (IRR) on investment could be achieved at an assumed average vanadium pentoxide price of US$10 per pound (0.45kg).

That would mean a payback period of two-and-a-half years on US$147 million capital expenditure required to get the mine started, according to the PEA which Nevada Vanadium commissioned consultancy Wood Group to produce.

Vanadium is used as an additive in steel for construction, which makes the steel much stronger with just a small amount of vanadium, reducing the weight, volume and therefore carbon footprint of steel used in that industry.

It also has industrial uses in defense, aerospace and other manufacturing sectors, as well of course as the electrolyte in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) for stationary energy storage. Although the stationary storage sector remains a marginal consumer, it is expected that will rise considerably in the coming years.

One recent report predicted that vanadium production worldwide could be doubled to meet demand for stationary energy storage applications by 2031. US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is known to be enthused on the prospects of flow batteries for grid storage.

In a 2020 presentation, Nevada Vanadium VP for environment and sustainability said that the Gibellini mine could be capable of producing 10 million pounds of vanadium annually, which would be equivalent to about 50% of US demand today – all of which is met by imports at present, Ron Espell said.

At present, there are only three vanadium producers from primary resources in the world, Largo Resources, which mines vanadium in Brazil, Bushveld Minerals in South Africa and Glencore, also in South Africa. Both Largo and Bushveld are becoming involved in the flow battery space, establishing subsidiaries focused on energy storage.

However, these producers only account for about 15% to 25% of vanadium used by industry, with the vast majority coming from secondary producers in Brazil and China, where vanadium is extracted as a byproduct of steel manufacturing.

Other primary vanadium resources are being developed elsewhere, notably in Australia, where the vanadium flow battery was invented.

Back in 2014, this site interviewed the CEO of American Vanadium, a now-defunct company which was developing a vanadium mine in Nevada from which it wanted to base its own flow battery production.

Nevada Vanadium mine will be 100% renewable powered

Nevada Vanadium said today that Hitachi Energy has been selected to develop renewable energy supply for Gibellini that will enable the facility to be self-sufficient and reliable around the clock.

Hitachi Energy will consult with the mining company on the requirements for the site, which Nevada Vanadium believes could be powered with a microgrid running on solar and equipped with battery energy storage system (BESS) technology, which can also provide back up to ensure continuity of operations.

Hitachi Energy, formerly known as Hitachi ABB Power Grids, has its own battery storage solution range and digital energy management and controls platforms, as well as other related technology and services in its portfolio.

The tech company will work with M3, the contractor designing the mine itself, and look at the operating profile and power consumption of mines, equipment demands under normal, emergency and transient operations, interconnection to the grid from the site and the possibilities of extending the power supply’s scope to also delivering energy to local communities.

The experiment was conducted by Shenqiang Ren, a scientist and engineer from the University at Buffalo.

Lithium ions travel from one side of the battery to the other as lithium-ion batteries charge and drain. Ren’s team designed a lithium-ion battery with a peculiar substance at one end: a compound whose magnetic varies when lithium ions enter or exit it.

According to Ren, this allows for the measurement of the battery’s charge level by measuring changes in the material’s magnetic.

The findings were reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on June 13^th, 2022.

The main goal of this project was working on the magneto-ionics, which uses ions to control the magnetism of materials. As the lithium ions travel in or out of the material we are using, the material will change its magnetization.

Shenqiang Ren, Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Chemistry, University at Buffalo

Ren added, “We can monitor the magnetism, and this enables us to indirectly monitor the lithium ions—the state of charge. We believe this is a new way to provide an accurate, fast, responsive sensing of state of charge.”

Yuguang C. Li, Ph.D., University of Buffalo associate professor of chemistry; Fei Yao, Ph.D., University of Buffalo assistant professor of materials design and innovation; and Qimin Yan, Ph.D., Temple University assistant professor of physics, are among the study’s corresponding authors.

The study’s first author was Yong Hu, a mechanical engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Buffalo.

The team’s magneto-ionic material is composed of vanadium, chromium, and cyanide, with an aqua ligand. The researchers discuss the properties of the compound that make it perfect for usage in rechargeable batteries, as well as the methods they used to measure the material’s changing magnetic in a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, in the study published in PNAS.

The initiative brought together the University of Buffalo’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, and RENEW Institute in a joint effort.

The US Department of Energy, the US Army Research Office, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority supported the researchers who conducted the study.

BMW announced Tuesday it plans to test a 600-mile range battery manufactured by Michigan-based startup Our Next Energy Inc. (ONE) in its BMW iX electric SUV.

The companies signed an agreement Tuesday to build a prototype BMW iX integrating ONE’s battery technology. It is expected by year’s end with the ability to run 600 miles between charges.

“We are thrilled to be working with BMW to demonstrate our Gemini long-range battery technology to consumers,” said Mujeeb Ijaz, founder and CEO of ONE. “We plan to pack twice as much energy into batteries, so EVs can easily handle long-distance driving in real-world conditions.”

A novel chemistry

The battery, dubbed Gemini, reduces the use of traditional EV battery materials as cobalt, nickel, graphite and lithium by combining two types of batteries in one. The first uses cobalt and nickel-free cathodes, while eliminating graphite, offering advantages such as lower costs. The second stores significantly more energy and effectively recharges the first pack as the vehicle is driven.

The battery’s chemistry doesn’t appear to be finalized. Ijaz said the company is still evaluating various electrode chemistries in Gemini, for tradeoffs in cost, energy density and sustainability.

“We are well-positioned to incorporate ONE’s IP into BMW’s SAV line,” said Jürgen Hildinger, BMW Group New Technologies Head of High Voltage Storage. “We are confident that given economic viability, this can lead to commercial opportunities and strategies to integrate ONE’s battery technologies into models of our future BEV product line-up.”

But BMW is not the only automaker on ONE’s wish list, as the company is talking with other automakers about similar prototype tests.

The company is also considering marketing batteries with lower ranges, to reduce their cost to that of current conventional nickel- and cobalt-based batteries.

Investors line up

The collaboration between the two isn’t unexpected, as BMW’s venture-capital division, BMW i Ventures, invested in the suburban Detroit-area startup. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate-oriented venture capital fund started by Bill Gates, as well as Volta Energy Technologies, in partnership with Argonne National Laboratories, are among ONE’s investors.

Investors’ faith was well founded. In January, ONE demonstrated a “proof-of-concept” battery that logged 752 miles without charging. The company claims a third-party tester, using a dynamometer to validate the results, actually got 882 miles at a steady 55 mph.

“We want to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles by eliminating range anxiety, which holds back most consumers today,” said Ijaz at the time “We are now focused on evolving this proof-of-concept battery into a new product called Gemini, which will enable long distance trips on a single charge while improving cost and safety using sustainable materials.”

ONE did not announce pricing of its Gemini batteries.

Seeking more range

While Ijaz now seeks to produce batteries that can deliver ever-greater range, he initially thought that a 100-mile battery would be sufficient given that Americans, on average, drive little more than 40 miles a day, and started his company in 1990 with that belief.

Now, he believes he can deliver 800 miles between charges. That range would be a boon to consumers, given the dearth of functioning or available high-speed public chargers. Nearly half of US consumers say that battery or charging issues are their top concerns about buying EVs according to a report by McKinsey & Co.

Those fears have some basis in merit.

While the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $7.5 billion to develop the country’s EV-charging infrastructure, including 500,000 public chargers, McKinsey estimates that if zero-emission vehicles account for half of all new vehicle sales by 2030, America will need 1.2 million public EV chargers and 28 million private EV chargers by then, 20 times what it has now.

In the meantime, ONE’s battery development continues, one that could lead to a breakthrough from a small, midwestern battery startup. Stay tuned.

There’s a fight brewing in the lithium market, after a controversial forecast from Goldman Sachs Group analysts set off a backlash among some of the industry’s most prominent experts.

Lithium is a vital component of electric-vehicle batteries, which means the outlook for supply, demand and pricing is increasingly consequential. For years, a small group of niche consultants has dominated the conversation in a commodity that some say will become as important as oil in the coming century. Now, with prices surging and demand booming, they’re increasingly sharing the stage with Wall Street titans like Goldman.

The bank made headlines when it warned that a searing rally in lithium will go into reverse this year as supply from unconventional new sources overwhelms demand. Credit Suisse Group AG also joined in predicting a correction. But specialists including London-based Benchmark Mineral Intelligence are loudly pushing back.

The rift matters because both groups play important roles in the burgeoning electric-vehicle industry. The niche consultancies offer tailored research to miners, battery-makers and car companies that guides decisions about whether to invest in new projects; Wall Street banks — and the investors that read their research — help determine whether they can afford to do so.

Benchmark disputes Goldman’s forecast that a flood of new production is on its way, and that prices will crater as a result. The consultancy still sees prices retreating from recent sky-high levels, but takes a more pessimistic view on the scale and timing of new supply. The mining industry is famously bad at hitting its production targets and lithium has added risks to due to the highly complex technical processes involved in making the final products used in battery packs, Benchmark says.

“You’ve got this additional hurdle arising because it’s not a commodity, it’s a specialty chemical,” Daisy Jennings-Gray, a senior price analyst at Benchmark, said by phone. “It’s a two-stage concern combining the traditional problems that the mining industry has faced with the additional challenges that a specialty chemical producer might face.”

The spat may seem trivial, but the stakes are high for those who rely on the forecasts, given lithium’s critical role in the electric-vehicle revolution and the wider fight against climate change.

If the deficits persist and prices spike further, it could cause car-makers’ margins to collapse, and potentially slow the mass roll-out of electric vehicles. But if prices slump, miners could scrap major new projects, setting the stage for even larger spikes and deeper deficits in the 2030s, when sales of electric vehicles will need to outstrip those of conventional cars if the industry is going to have a hope of hitting its net-zero targets.

“The lithium industry in its current form is very young, and so it’s difficult to say with confidence how responsive miners will be in bringing on new supply,” said Peter Hannah, a senior price development manager at Fastmarkets, a price reporting agency and industry consultancy. “A lot of it hinges on technology that we’ve never really seen before, and so there a lot of variables to consider, and each one could prove each of us wildly wrong, one way or another.”

Of course, disagreement among analysts is common in commodities markets, but the scale of the divergence is particularly acute in battery metals like lithium, where supply and demand are both growing at a breakneck pace. While a market like copper typically grows by 2%-4% a year, lithium analysts are anticipating growth of more than 20% for both supply and demand between 2021 and 2025.

Calculating error

That means minor differences in analysts’ assumptions — for example about the chemical composition of batteries or the timing of new mining expansions —  can have a major impact on their supply-and-demand estimates. It’s an issue that’s cropping up in other battery metals like cobalt and nickel as well.

George Heppel, who developed models for battery metals demand at commodities consultancy CRU Group before joining BASF SE earlier this year, said in a LinkedIn post last month that a minor error in calculating nickel demand meant forecasts underestimated usage by about 30%. And others in the industry were doing the same.

“Several months after fixing my model, I was having lunch with a nickel analyst at an investment bank who was angrily complaining about how the nickel demand numbers being generated by the bank’s battery division were far too low. It was with much satisfaction that I was able to reveal the likely issue,” Heppel wrote.

In lithium, expert consultancies claim that the wayfarers from Wall Street are far more likely to overlook the nuances of the industry in carrying out their research. Joe Lowry, the founder of specialist advisory firm Global Lithium, has frequently taken to Twitter to call out perceived shortcomings in research by banks.

Matt Fernley, the London-based managing director at Battery Materials Review, an industry researcher, said the sellside reports are “massively over-estimating” the ease of adding new supply, and failing to consider the complexity of bringing new assets into production and the qualification requirements.

“The lithium industry needs to raise hundreds of billions of dollars of capital for expansion over the next 10-15 years,” he said. “A lot of that needs to come from equity and that’s going to be difficult if equity prices are depressed because of such reports.”

When developer King & Benton Holdings acquired the former Union Carbide synthetic graphite manufacturing facility in Welland, Ontario, the last thing magament thought was that they were going to end up joining the battery metals space.

The idea was to create a new community that included a mix of residential, prestige industrial and commercial spaces in the 178-acre brownfield site. But in the process of executing the environmental due diligence on the property, the team doing the fieldwork discovered a 500,000-tonne cache of pure synthetic graphite, remnants from the site’s industrial past.

Plans changed swiftly and a new company was born, ReGen Resource Recovery.

Using King & Benton’s experience in aggregate processing, the nascent firm will focus on refining the existing stockpile of graphite with the goal of supplying the North American market.

“We are planning on initial separation and stockpiling 2,000 tonnes daily from the graphite deposit. This material will be processed for end-users at the new ReGen Resource processing facility to be located in a recently acquired 250,000-square-feet facility adjacent to the graphite deposit,” Steve Charest, president and CEO of the King and Benton group of companies, told MINING.COM. “We will have equipment that can both micronize and shape ReGen material if needed and spheroidize imported natural graphite. Initial micronizing capacity will be 35,000 tonnes annually starting in 2024.”

Charest pointed out that plans are underway to expand the plant’s capacity to 100,000 tonnes per year allowing for the additional processing of imported natural graphite. The raw material would be acquired once relationships, partnerships or acquisitions have been established with mining companies and importers who could benefit from ReGen’s processing capabilities.

Demand for the final product is expected to arise from companies requiring high-grade synthetic graphite for batteries, as well as from other industrial applications that seek an alternative to the current Chinese-dependent supply chain.

Rechargeable batteries are more beneficial to both the environment and your wallet than standard batteries. But how do they work? If you’ve ever been curious about how rechargeable batteries work or why you should switch from standard, we’ve got you covered.

There are a few key differences between a rechargeable battery and its standard cousin, but the core process required for a battery to power a device is the same. Those few differences, however, make rechargeable batteries way more efficient, energy-conscious, and cheaper in the long run.

How Do Rechargeable Batteries Work?

To understand how rechargeable batteries work, you first have to know how a standard (one-time use) battery works. If you already know how regular batteries work, you can skip ahead a little bit; if not, check out this short explanation.

How Does a Standard Battery Work?

Going back to very basic science, a battery, like everything else in life, is made up of atoms. Then, an atom is made up of particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. Although it seems like protons, electrons, and neutrons were defined multiple times throughout grade school, here’s a refresher. Protons are positive particles, electrons are negative particles, and neutrons are neutral particles with no charge.

If you grab a AA battery and take a close look at it, you’ll see a positive symbol (+) on one end and a negative symbol (-) on the other. These positive and negative indicators represent a positive electrode and a negative electrode inside the battery, separated by an electrolyte solution that controls the electric current between both ends of the battery.

The positive electrode, called the cathode, has a positive charge because it has way more protons than electrons. Then, the negative electrode, called the anode, has a surplus of electrons that don’t match its number of protons.

Both the cathode and the anode want to get to a state of equilibrium where they have equal numbers of protons and electrons. To do this, electrons travel from the anode (the negative end) to the cathode (the positive end) using the electrolyte solution, which only lets electrons through when a battery is connected to a device.

When all the excess electrons from the anode have made their way to the cathode, the battery is dead and can no longer power any of your electronics. On the other hand, rechargeable batteries can use a charger to reverse electron flow so that the anode once again has a ton of electrons to give off and allow an electric current.

Okay, So How Are Rechargeable Batteries Different From Standard Batteries?

This electron reversal process allows rechargeable batteries to be used again and again. Now, that’s not to say that you can buy a pack of rechargeable batteries and have it last you for life. Just like your smartphone battery life gets worse over time, rechargeable AA or AAA batteries will lose their ability to hold a full charge. If you’re maintaining and using your rechargeable batteries properly, they can last you up to five to seven years.

Rechargeable batteries have to be made of certain elements, like lithium, to allow for a safe recharging process. Non-rechargeable batteries are typically called alkaline batteries, with zinc and manganese dioxide as electrodes and either potassium or sodium hydroxide as the electrolyte solution dividing the two. Alkaline batteries can’t be recharged and, in fact, can even be dangerous and sometimes explosive.

If you decide to invest in rechargeable batteries, you’ll need to be sure you get the right charger for the batteries you purchase. There are three main types of rechargeable batteries: Li-ion (Lithium-ion), NiMH (Nickel-Metal Hydride), and NiCd (Nickel-Cadmium).

Getting a NiMH charger for Li-ion batteries or any other mismatched combination is a bad idea. So be sure to recognize what your rechargeable batteries are made of and find a proper charger for that specific battery type.

What Are the Benefits of Using Rechargeable Batteries?

There are both environmental and financial benefits to using rechargeable batteries in lieu of standard batteries. Because rechargeable batteries allow you to buy less of them over time, you’re creating less waste, both from dead batteries and packaging from new packs of batteries. Plus, although you have to spend a bit more upfront for rechargeable batteries, you’ll save money over time. All battery brands differ in price and estimated charge length, so let’s take a look at Duracell’s batteries for a closer comparison.

A 4-pack of Duracell’s Standard AA Batteries retails for about $6, while a 4-pack of Duracell’s Rechargeable Batteries retails for about $16. Then, you’ll also need to buy a charger for the rechargeable batteries, or you can snag a value pack with batteries and a charger.

While you’d save $10 right away by sticking with standard batteries, consider how much you’d save with rechargeable batteries over 400 total recharges. It’s impossible to know whether you’d get exactly 400 recharges out of each battery, but that’s what Duracell boasts its rechargeable batteries are capable of. If you’re recharging your batteries instead of buying new ones—400 times over—that’s a huge amount of money saved.

Don’t forget about the environmental implications either! With Duracell’s rechargeable batteries, that’s about 400 packages of standard batteries (and ~1600 actual batteries) that you’re saving from the trash.

Of course, these are estimates that are just there to suggest the possibilities. As mentioned above, every battery brand boasts a different number of recharges, a different price difference, and sometimes even different types of rechargeable batteries. Duracell’s 400 recharges guarantee is also likely based on properly maintaining your batteries over the years.

How Do You Properly Maintain Rechargeable Batteries?

As mentioned earlier, make sure you purchase the correct type of charger for the kind of rechargeable battery you bought. For example, if you go with Lithium rechargeable batteries, make sure you buy a Lithium-specific charger. Although your batteries might charge in a non-Lithium charger, it’s not as efficient and certainly not as safe.

Speaking of chargers, try to get a smart charger that will prevent overcharging. Smart chargers recognize when the battery is full and either cut off charging or switch to trickle charging until you can take them out of the charger. Even if you have a smart charger, you should still take your batteries out when you realize they’re fully charged, or even better, almost fully charged.

Charging a rechargeable battery follows a lot of the same protocols as charging a smartphone. You might’ve heard that letting your phone die or overcharging your phone can lead to the battery losing its ability to hold a charge as well. The same concept can be applied to rechargeable batteries. It’s better if you charge them when they hit about 20% capacity rather than waiting until they fully run out of juice.

You’ll also want to constantly use your rechargeable batteries. Without fairly regular use, rechargeable batteries won’t be able to function as well. This might mean rotating out your batteries every month, even if they’re still at a 50% charge.

Make sure you monitor the heat of your batteries while charging, or better yet, get a smart charger that comes with some sort of cooling feature or heat-absorbing material. Heat is detrimental to rechargeable batteries, so be sure to also store them away from sunlight when not in use.

Are Rechargeable Batteries Better than Standard Batteries?

For the most part, yes. Rechargeable batteries will last you anywhere from two to seven years, depending on the brand you choose and how well you maintain them. They’ll save you money, help the environment, and they’re just cooler. Even without the recharging feature, rechargeable batteries typically last longer than standard batteries because of what they’re made of.

That said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with keeping both standard and rechargeable batteries on hand. After all, rechargeable batteries require power from an outlet to recharge them. So if you’re in the middle of an emergency, like a power outage from a storm, and your rechargeable batteries aren’t charged, you’ll be thankful for your stash of standard batteries. Alkaline batteries also have a significantly longer shelf life than rechargeable batteries, making them a better pick for emergency kits.

There’s another instance where alkaline batteries win out over rechargeable batteries. Alkaline batteries are the better choice if you have electronics that need a constant draw of low power, like a wall clock, bike light, or head lamp. These batteries start out at a higher voltage and drain at a consistently predictable rate.

Rechargeable batteries, on the other hand, start at a lower voltage and maintain that low output for longer, which can result in weird or inconsistent performance in a device. Also, rechargeable batteries lose total capacity the more times they’re recharged. So when using a device that’s constantly using power, you might find yourself recharging the batteries more often than you’d like.

It’s also worth thinking about what items in your home currently require batteries. Do you remember when the last time was you had to change the batteries in your remote? Many devices nowadays come with a built-in battery that recharges via a USB cord and a wall outlet. Before you get consumed with choosing between standard and rechargeable batteries, think about how much you use them in general.

The Best Rechargeable AA and AAA Batteries

If you want to make the switch and invest in some rechargeable batteries, we can help. We’ve done all the research for you if you just want to browse through our picks, but we also cover what you should look for in a rechargeable battery in case you want to search on your own.