Battery Metals

Manganese dioxide could make the preparation of micromotors increasingly cost-effective, opening up new avenues for their use, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland.

Synthetic micromotors are tiny particles with dimensions less than the diameter of a human hair. Micromotors can undergo an autonomous motion in liquid environments, which can be driven by various means such as a chemical fuel, ultrasound, light or magnetic field. Fuel-driven micromotors are often catalytic in nature, which causes the transformation of a chemical fuel into reaction products that lead to a self-propulsion of the particles. Micromotors may find use in the future, for example, in targeted drug delivery, specific catalysis or chemical sensing of harmful substances.

Platinum is the most widely explored catalytic material for the preparation of micromotors. It efficiently decomposes hydrogen peroxide into oxygen gas and water. However, platinum is an extremely rare chemical element and also suffers from serious limitations, such as drastically reduced catalytic efficiency in salt-rich environments and complete inactivation in the presence of sulphur containing compounds. Manganese dioxide is an alternate inorganic material that can decompose hydrogen peroxide similar to platinum. Manganese dioxide is also cheap and available in large quantities. Thus, it is a very potential new material for the preparation of catalytic micromotors, but has been scarcely explored to date.

In the study, a variety of manganese dioxide based micromotors were synthesized and characterized in terms of their motion behaviour in solution. Based on the results, the prepared micromotors exhibited a remarkable propulsion efficiency even in the presence of very low fuel concentrations. To demonstrate their potential for practical applications, the micromotors were used for the removal of organic dyes from water. The dye removal process was based on a unique effect that combined catalytic degradation and adsorptive bubble separation processes. The dye removal efficiency was over 90% in just one hour of reaction time without external mixing. In addition, manganese dioxide was used as a simple means for protecting the conventional platinum-based micromotors from sulphur toxicity.

Self-propelling micromotors may offer new opportunities to deliver drugs precisely to the tumour, with minimal adverse effects to the healthy tissues. Micromotors also possess an enormous potential to convert water pollutants into non-toxic or less-toxic products, even at difficult to reach areas and remote field locations, where external means of mixing to speed up the processes are not viable. Manganese dioxide micromotors, which can undergo a fast motion for a sufficient period of time in the presence of a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide, are expected to find diverse applications for active drug delivery and water remediation.

 

After the end of the World War II, the US prudently built up a reserve of metals it deemed “strategic” in the not-unlikely event that the nation could again be called on to defend its allies in war.

American leadership saw how Germany practically starved Britain with submarine attacks on British and Allied shipping vessels. On the other hand, the US managed to break the back of the Japanese economy by sinking over 90 percent of the Japanese merchant fleet. Both of these events show how cutting a country’s supply lines (including critical metals) in times of war can devastate a war-time economy.

During the Cold War of the 1950s to the end of the 1980s, the US was constantly worried about a war with the Soviet Union, so it kept a “strategic stockpile” of metals that could be pressed into military applications should the need arise. The metals included indium, chromium, cobalt, diamonds and molybdenum. In 1987, the US added manganese to the stockpile. The reason? Manganese is essential to the production of steel; as a steel alloy, there is no substitute for it. For every tonne of iron, 10 to 20 pounds of electrolytic manganese metal (EMM) must be added, making it the fourth-most-traded metal in the world. Only aluminum, iron ore and copper are more widely used.

Since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, the US government has sold off its strategic stockpile, making the country vulnerable to foreign metal producers such as China, which produces 90 percent of the rare earths used in smartphones, green energy applications and missile-guidance systems, to name just three examples. Along with rare earths and many others, manganese is long gone from the stockpile.

The US has no manganese reserves and no producing mines, a situation echoed in most industrialized countries, including those in Europe. According to the US Geological Survey, manganese ore containing 20 percent or more manganese has not been produced in the US or Canada since 1970.

All the high-grade (>20 percent) manganese ore was mined out, leaving just the low-grade material that is too expensive to mine considering the lower-cost and easier alternative, which is to import it. It’s estimated that the US needs about 1.1 billion pounds of manganese a year, almost all of which is consumed by the steel industry.

Rising steel demand
Despite the ups and downs of the global steel industry, the International Manganese Institute predicts the steel industry will continue to grow at 2 percent annually; the US is expected to produce 4.4 percent more steel this year, in line with President Donald Trump’s focus on infrastructure spending. Growth in steelmaking puts an even brighter spotlight on manganese as a critical metal — defined as a metal that is essential to the economy and has a significant risk of supply interruptions. If one or more of the nations that supply manganese to the US suddenly stop shipping it, the implications for steelmaking could be dire.

Emerging battery technologies
While the US currently imports manganese from major producers South Africa, Australia, China and Gabon, more recent applications for manganese are making it even more critical — especially the battery industry, where manganese is used to produce batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and for other renewable energy applications such as electricity grid storage (e.g. Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Powerwall batteries).

Indeed, manganese is a critical link in the lithium-ion battery supply chain that is driving the adoption of EVs. According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, energy storage is “the last vital piece” needed to wean the global economy off fossil fuels and enable widespread adoption of EVs and renewable energy.

The market for manganese in North America has huge potential considering the lack of domestically mined manganese and the growing popularity of EVs that run on batteries made from lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. Manganese is increasingly being seen as a leading-edge metal for battery production.

Why we need an increase in production of manganese and vanadium for critical markets.

 

While demand for high-capacity batteries and electric vehicles are soaring, and agricultural need for fertilizer minerals grows, pressure is mounting on the mining industry to provide all the necessary materials—including both manganese and vanadium.

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All while during a meteoric rise in demand for electric vehicles and high-capacity batteries, manufacturers of these goods are running head-on into competition for materials, including from a booming agriculture sector.

Two of the most overlooked critical metals in these booming markets are manganese and vanadium.

Feature: Maxtech Ventures Inc. (TSXV: MVT) (OTC: MTEHF) is rapidly progressing towards their near-term production in both metals, which we believe has left them drastically undervalued.

Maxtech’s targeting of manganese and vanadium represents a strategic operation to provide immense value in the critical metals sector—through the increasing needs of the battery, electric vehicle (EV), and even fertilizer sectors.

BEYOND LITHIUM—MANGANESE AND VANADIUM IN THE BATTERY BOOM

As manufacturers such as Tesla Motors become household names, in this the electric vehicle renaissance, their demand for critical metals increase.

At present, the most popular being used are lithium-manganese-oxide batteries. As well, there are also lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (NMC) batteries, which are using 19% manganese.

Manganese isn’t a new material, but demand for it is growing rapidly thanks to the battery needs of multiple markets. For generations, the metal has been used in steel production, which still consumes 90% of all manganese supplies annually at the moment. Traditionally, the balance of the supplies have been used in fertilizer and nutrition markets.

But, while many of the newer consumers of manganese are manufacturers in the west, there is currently no manganese production in North America.

Now while manganese is quietly rising in demand within the metals markets, so is vanadium.

Sharing many similarities with manganese, including being used in steel production, vanadium’s market value is solidly on the rise. Like manganese, approximately 90% of the world’s vanadium is used in steel production.

The Economist recently highlighted that Vanadium is the latest beneficiary of the battery craze.

According to the article, the price of vanadium is rising faster than cobalt, copper and nickel, all of which are also used in lithium-ion batteries. Vanadium demand is growing through the need of the compound vanadium pentoxide, which is used as an electrolyte in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRBs).

Unlike manganese batteries, vanadium batteries are much larger, and are not used in EVs. Instead, VRBs are as big as shipping containers and are seen as better at storing large amounts of wind and solar energy, than large stacks of lithium-ion batteries.

For large-scale needs, it appears that VRBs are more economical and scalable than their lithium-ion counterparts.

Both manganese and vanadium are quietly rising in value, despite a supply gap that’s on the rise.

While the current battery boom is a major driver for both, manganese is also receiving heavy demands from another booming sector—Brazilian agriculture.

 

BRAZIL’S MANGANESE NEEDS GROWING FASTER THAN EV MARKET

Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of sugar cane, maize, and soybeans. The agricultural sector employs 15.7% of the workforce, and is estimated at 5.9% of the country’s GDP.

The Brazilian agricultural sector has become one of the most competitive on the planet within just one generation. Output from the sector is expected to continue to rise, thus so too will Brazil’s demands on fertilizers—both in production and distribution.

Thanks to favourable weather, and being the primary beneficiary of a global soybean triangle  with the US and China, Brazil’s soybean harvest is expected to be 2-3% larger in 2018-19.

Part of the drawbacks of having a heavy agricultural output, is the strain that’s created upon the soils of the crops.

By looking at soybean crops, which Brazil is the #1 exporter of in the world, one deficiency stands out among the rest—Brazil’s micronutrient levels show that manganese is the most common deficiency noted in soybean production.

Demand for high-purity manganese in Brazil is expected to increase by 4.8% CAGR, which would equate to an additional demand of 227,000 tonnes—just for use in fertilizers!

While global demand for manganese is on the rise, and production is on the decline, the result has been a significant price increase from 2016.

But while prices rose significantly for the metal, manganese production fell in 2016 due to the quiet closures and cuts implemented in Australia, China, Gabon, and South Africa.

Which puts Brazilian farmers at a disadvantage, because for them the fight for high-purity manganese is for their livelihood, whereas there’s no sign of counter demands from the EV and battery markets waning.

The result has been a 25-30% pricing premium on high-purity manganese used in fertilizers.

So, for the few manganese providers out there in the global market, there’s a built-in incentive to sell to Brazil’s fertilizer market first, and let the EV makers move to second in line.

Hence, the location of Maxtech Ventures’ Brazilian assets being near major agricultural centers, is a key advantage for a burgeoning future manganese producer.

The use of high-quality flake manganese in the battery industry has caused the price of pure, (99.7 percent flake) manganese to surge to roughly US$2,800 a tonne, nearly double what it was in 2015. The demand for electrolytic flake manganese used in batteries is now outpacing supply by about 25,000 MT.

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WHY MAXTECH’S BRAZILIAN MANGANESE COULD BE WORTH MORE

Maxtech’s Brasnorte Project is located in Juina, Mato Grosso, and mean levels obtained on the claim were 50%+ manganese metal, with analyses performed by SGS Geosol Laboratorios LTDA., Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The location of Maxtech’s Brazilian assets is key to the company’s strategy. Not only do the assets contain high grades of manganese, but their geographic location provides strategic advantage that other manganese operations likely cannot capitalize on.

This advantage is namely, agriculture. Beyond the demand caused by high-end batteries, manganese has another use that commands a premium—as a fertilizer.

With a 40,000-hectare flagship project located in in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, Maxtech is positioning itself to become one of the highest-grade, lowest-cost manganese producers on the planet.

The company’s target production is already projected at 11,500 tonnes of manganese, with an expectation of ramping up to full annual production of 80,000 tonnes per annum by 2020.

With just the growth in Brazil’s demand for high-purity manganese expected to rise by an additional demand of 227,000 tonnes, it’s possible for Maxtech and its partners to sell the majority of its manganese product domestically in Brazil for the coveted 25-30% price premium.

WHAT ABOUT THE VANADIUM?

Along with the targeting of manganese in Brazil, Maxtech is moving forward on its vanadium pursuits in Brazil, through the formation of a vanadium exploration-research team to work on identifying further potential vanadium mineralization deposits in other Brazilian areas of interest, near the company’s established high-grade manganese assets.

Maxtech has filed to acquire two vanadium mineral claims in the State of Bahia, Brazil. The total areas of interest are 3500 hectares, located in the eastern Bahia State of Brazil, which is roughly 813 km northeast of the capital of Brazil in Brasilia near the city of Maracás.

The new claims are adjacent to the producing Maracás Menchen Vanadium Mine, and the Campbell pit deposit developed by Largo Resources (OTC: LGORF) (TSX: LGO), which is a Toronto-based strategic mineral company focused on the production of vanadium flake, high-purity vanadium flake and high-purity vanadium powder.

With a new focus on vanadium, Maxtech wasted no time to form a strategic alliance with GeoXplor Corp. The new partner is a top-tier mining consulting firm with offices in British Columbia, Arizona, and Nevada and has a successful history of acquiring outstanding properties of merit. The new alliance is specifically focused on identifying new North American vanadium claims for Maxtech.

GeoXplor brings an impressive track record that involving key roles in the development of lithium brines in the Clayton Valley region, including helping discover and identify an Inferred Resource of 816,000 tonnes of Lithium Carbonate equivalent (July 2015 NI 43-101), and fulfilling the role as operators for both Lithium X Energy Corp. and Pure Energy Minerals in the Clayton Valley.

MORE HIGH-GRADE MANGANESE POTENTIAL

Maxtech’s footprint isn’t only in Brazil. The company has strategically sought out high-grade large-scale exploration licenses in Zambia, through the filing for licenses that were recently validated by Zambia’s Minister of Mines and Mineral Development.

The two specific license areas that Maxtech secured have shown the potential for high-grade manganese mineralization with grades up to 70% Mn, as well as vanadium from initial research prepared by Maxtech’s Zambian-based geology team, GeoQuest.

Moving forward, the exploration licenses submitted to the Minister of Mines have detailed exploration and production outlines up to 4 years covering not only manganese, but also for other critical battery materials including cobalt, vanadium, nickel and copper mining rights on the areas.

With major companies such as Ferroglobe PLC, Largo Resources Ltd., and BHP Billiton Ltd. each ramping up their own production capabilities to meet the market’s growing needs for their critical metals, it’s a valuable exercise to see where Maxtech’s upper potential can lead.

FEATURE COMPANY: FOR COMPARISON

Maxtech Ventures Inc.
(CDNX: MVT) (OTC: MTEHF) (FF: M1NA)
Market Cap: $5.75 million

Maxtech Ventures is a Canadian-based junior exploration company that has positioned itself to become a force in the Green Energy Revolution through assembling and acquiring mineral assets worldwide with a view to becoming a low-cost supplier of manganese and vanadium to agricultural, industrial and technology markets. The company has assembled multiple assets that it intends to develop with its established partners on the ground in strategic global regions.

Industry Leaders: A View of the Upper End for Potential Gains

The following stocks represent some of the critical metals sector’s biggest players, which have been able to leverage their interest in the developing manganese and vanadium trends. Unlike Maxtech which has significant growth potential ahead, these majors already have the upside of the new opportunities for manganese and vanadium priced in, so they do not have the potential for 10x, 20x or 30x returns like that of our feature company. However, an example of established majors can demonstrate the size and scope of the manganese and vanadium markets and their positive momentum.

Ferroglobe PLC
(NASDAQ: GSM)
Market Cap: $2.2 billion

Ferroglobe PLC is one of the world’s leading suppliers of silicon metal, silicon-based specialty alloys, and ferroalloys serving a customer base across the globe in dynamic and fast-growing end markets, such as solar, automotive, consumer products, construction and energy.

 

Largo Resources Ltd.
(OTC: LGORF) (TSX: LGO)
Market Cap: $844.672 million

Largo Resources Ltd., is a natural resource development and exploration company, which engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of mining and exploration properties located in Brazil and Canada. The company primarily explores for vanadium, iron, tungsten, molybdenum, chromite, palladium, and platinum group metals. Its flagship project is the Maracás Menchen Mine that consists of 18 concessions covering an area of 17,690.45 hectares located in Bahia State, Brazil.

BHP Billiton Ltd
(NYSE: BBL)
Market Cap: $33.4 billion

BHP Billiton Limited is an international resources company. The Company’s principal business lines are mineral exploration and production, including coal, iron ore, gold, titanium, ferroalloys, nickel and copper concentrate, as well as petroleum exploration, production, and refining.

 

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Manganese is a little-known element yet it is the fourth most used metal in terms of tonnage, ranked behind iron, aluminum and copper.

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Its becoming readily apparent that drivers such as the growing EV and battery markets, as well as other power demands such as for steel production and agriculture are positively affecting manganese and vanadium demand and prices. Now researchers are predicting that without a new source and development for manganese and vanadium supplies could cause prices for the metals to spike and possibly lead to some serious global challenges.

Maxtech Ventures is investing in amassing a huge footprint in both manganese and vanadium, while positioning themselves to capitalize on their respective demands.

Here are examples of the positive momentum that we currently see from Maxtech Ventures:

• Fast-tracking toward near-term production with an expanded exploration program.
• Operating in the mining-friendly jurisdiction and agricultural super power of Brazil—leading global soybean exporter and prime market for manganese-enriched fertilizers.
• Holds a large (54,000-hectare) land package of high-grade manganese mineral claims located within 100 km of the nation’s most important soybean producing region—representing a path to near-term cash flow.
• Partnered with one of Brazil’s largest manganese companies to explore further and co-develop retail markets.
• Secured two massive licenses in Zambia with grades up to 70% Mn.
• Offers near term for high-grade manganese and vanadium, which are essential for expanding battery markets; no current large-scale high-grade manganese production.

And impressively, Maxtech Ventures has accomplished all these milestones since the beginning of 2017.

Manganese is still a lesser-known element, despite being the fourth most used metal in terms of tonnage, ranked behind only iron, aluminum and copper.

Because it’s still currently not widely followed, there’s a significant potential that Maxtech’s share price is presently quite undervalued. Since manganese and vanadium haven’t received sufficient coverage, companies dealing in the metals have not experienced the same market boosts witnessed by similar companies in other battery metals, such as lithium.

The market should consider Maxtech Ventures at its current stage – prior to major production on its Brazil and Zambia projects.

As we’ve seen through the early rise in the lithium space, many investors missed out on that sector’s best opportunity window. Many incorrectly assumed that the smaller players in pre-production stages weren’t worth following, and missed out on significant gains.

At the stage it is at, and with its focus on two critical metals we believe are crucially overlooked at this time, Maxtech Ventures deserves the same level of attention for its pre-emptive efforts in manganese and vanadium, before the reality of their respective supply and demand gap becomes mainstream knowledge.

 

Energy Metal News
Editorial Staff

 

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Ivory Coast’s Shiloh Manganese, a subsidiary of India’s Shiloh Industries, aims to produce 120,000 tonnes of manganese a year at its new mining operation, boosting national output to at least 350,000 tonnes, a top company official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Ivory Coast is the world’s top cocoa grower and is trying to develop its long-neglected mining sector as part of a bid to diversify the economy as it recovers from a decade-long political crisis.

“We have a mining permit. We are officially starting our mining operation this Wednesday in the Korhogo region,” said the mine’s director of administration Philippe Blekahi. Korhogo is in northern Ivory Coast.

The government said in 2014 it wanted to boost manganese production to 1 million tonnes by 2017, but weaker than expected demand from China has slowed production.

Manganese output fell to about 200,000 tonnes in 2016 from 263,178 tonnes in 2015 due to low commodities prices.

Government-owed Sodemi Lauzoua, which operates in the southeast of the country in partnership with China National Geological and Mining Corporation has slowed production while other companies have suspended operations.

Blekahi said the mine expected to spend about 15 billion CFA francs ($26 million) on mine development in the 10 years of its renewable permit and export mainly to India, China and Europe.

Semi-carbonated manganese ore prices to China firmed Friday while carbonated material prices held steady.

Market participants said February and March offers for 37% manganese ore were being made to Chinese buyers at $6.50-$7.00/dry metric ton unit but prices were being accepted at the lower end of the range.

Offers for Australian origin 45% manganese ore were heard up to $7.15/dmtu while Gabon origin was at $6.80-$7.00/dmtu all CIF China basis. A Chinese smelter source said he was looking at buying Australian material at around $7.15/dmtu as this is an “acceptable level for now.”

With Chinese new year holidays fast approaching, market participants said they were expecting to see a slowdown in demand. “People are anticipating lower levels in near term, so are all holding back,” one Chinese trader said, adding there was no rush as there was no shortage in stocks.

A second Chinese trader said manganese ore prices in port were soft compared to seaborne material due to, “traders trying to get cash for the new year.” He added the outlook for manganese alloys prices also looked soft.

The S&P Global Platts weekly 44% manganese ore assessment was unchanged at $7.00/dmtu CIF Tianjin while 37% manganese ore was at $6.50/dmtu up 10 cents on the week, same basis.