Lithium News

French minerals company Imerys unveiled plans on Monday to develop a lithium mine in central France that it said could be a leading contributor in Europe’s quest for electric-vehicle battery materials.

Electric cars such as Renault’s Zoe are key to the European Union’s strategy to cut emissions and the bloc is trying to reduce reliance on battery supplies from Asia.

Imerys aims produce 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually for at least 25 years from 2028 at an existing mine at Beauvoir, north of Clermont-Ferrand.

That would be one of Europe’s largest lithium mining projects, the company said, and enough to supply around 700,000 electric car batteries a year – a sizeable chunk of the government’s target of 2 million EVs per year produced in France by 2030.

Imerys was surprised at the scale of the resource after a previous geological survey dating back to 1960 showed a much smaller deposit, Chief Executive Alessandro Dazza told Reuters by telephone.

The group will now begin talks with potential industrial and financial partners, including car makers, with a view to deciding on an investment model before the main construction phase projected to cost around 1 billion euros ($983 million) and begin in mid-2025, Dazza said.

“The game starts now,” he said of partnership discussions.

Imerys is positioning the project as a low-emissions one, helped by the use of an existing mining site and underground extraction supported by electric vehicles.

New mining projects can attract local opposition, as evidenced by environmental protests in Serbia which led the government to revoke permits held by Rio Tinto for Europe’s biggest lithium project.

Imerys did not see significant risks in planning permission given backing from local and national authorities, Dazza said.

The mine plan was welcomed by the French government, which announced that it was one of five critical metals projects, also including a recycling scheme led by mining group Eramet, that would receive a total of 100 million euros in funding.

Imerys estimated the lithium cash cost at 7-9 euros per kilo for the planned mine, which will be located at its Beauvoir site where it has been mining kaolin for ceramics since the late 19th century.

The company’s shares closed up 5% in Paris.

The majority of worldwide lithium production and known reserves are outside Europe, notably in Australia, South America and China.

Eramet is developing lithium production in Argentina and is among companies exploring geothermal extraction of lithium in the Rhine basin around the French-German border.

French minerals company Imerys (IMTP.PA) unveiled plans on Monday to develop a lithium mine in central France that it said could be a leading contributor in Europe’s quest for electric-vehicle battery materials.

Electric cars such as Renault’s (RENA.PA) Zoe are key to the European Union’s strategy to cut emissions and the bloc is trying to reduce reliance on battery supplies from Asia.

Imerys aims produce 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually for at least 25 years from 2028 at an existing mine at Beauvoir, north of Clermont-Ferrand.

That would be one of Europe’s largest lithium mining projects, the company said, and enough to supply around 700,000 electric car batteries a year – a sizeable chunk of the government’s target of 2 million EVs per year produced in France by 2030.

Imerys was surprised at the scale of the resource after a previous geological survey dating back to 1960 showed a much smaller deposit, Chief Executive Alessandro Dazza told Reuters by telephone.

The group will now begin talks with potential industrial and financial partners, including car makers, with a view to deciding on an investment model before the main construction phase projected to cost around 1 billion euros ($983 million) and begin in mid-2025, Dazza said.

“The game starts now,” he said of partnership discussions.

Imerys is positioning the project as a low-emissions one, helped by the use of an existing mining site and underground extraction supported by electric vehicles.

New mining projects can attract local opposition, as evidenced by environmental protests in Serbia which led the government to revoke permits held by Rio Tinto (RIO.L), (RIO.AX) for Europe’s biggest lithium project.

Imerys did not see significant risks in planning permission given backing from local and national authorities, Dazza said.

The mine plan was welcomed by the French government, which announced that it was one of five critical metals projects, also including a recycling scheme led by mining group Eramet (ERMT.PA), that would receive a total of 100 million euros in funding.

Imerys estimated the lithium cash cost at 7-9 euros per kilo for the planned mine, which will be located at its Beauvoir site where it has been mining kaolin for ceramics since the late 19th century.

The company’s shares closed up 5% in Paris.

The majority of worldwide lithium production and known reserves are outside Europe, notably in Australia, South America and China.

Eramet is developing lithium production in Argentina and is among companies exploring geothermal extraction of lithium in the Rhine basin around the French-German border.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have fabricated two-dimensional Mn3O4 nanosheets with dominant crystal planes on graphene (Mn3O4 NS/G) as efficient oxygen catalysts for lithium-oxygen batteries, achieving ultrahigh capacity and long-term stability.

In a study published in the journal ACS Catalysis, the scientists explain that Li-O2 batteries are among the most promising devices for the green energy transition due to their high theoretical energy density. However, the poor catalytic performance of its air cathode has impeded its commercialization.

This is why – they say – it is crucial to design oxygen catalysts with well-defined shapes and high-activity crystal facets that can effectively regulate the oxygen reduction reaction and the oxygen evolution reaction at the three-phase interfaces. The problem is that this process remains challenging.

Through their testing, the researchers noticed that the Mn3O4 NS/G with the facets (101) and enriched oxygen vacancies offered a lower charge overpotential of 0.86 V than that of Mn3O4 nanoparticles on graphene (1.15 V).

Moreover, the Mn3O4 NS/G cathode exhibited long-term stability over 1,300 hours and ultrahigh specific capacity up to 35,583 mAh/g at 200 mA/g, outperforming most Mn-based oxides for Li-O2 batteries previously studied.

“This work may provide clues for engineering Mn-based materials with a defined crystal facet for high-performance Li-O2 batteries,” Wu Zhongshuai, co-lead author of the research, said in a media statement.

Mercedes-Benz AG will source carbon-neutral lithium hydroxide to build batteries for electric vehicles from a Vancouver-based mining startup.

Starting in 2026, the agreement with Rock Tech Lithium will provide Mercedes-Benz AG with an average of 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year — enough for around 150,000 electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz, which sells about two million vehicles worldwide annually, plans to go all-electric by the end of the decade.

Automakers worldwide are scrambling to secure the lithium supply required to produce enough electric vehicles to meet their 2030 targets, especially as they bring more of the battery pack manufacturing process in-house. In September, Chinese EV maker Nio bought a 12% stake in Australian lithium mining company Greenwing Resources as it gears up to make its own battery packs beginning in 2024.

The partnership with Rock Tech “will play a key role in securing the lithium supply for our battery production in Europe,” Markus Schäfer, chief technology officer for Mercedes-Benz AG, said in a statement.

Under the agreement, Rock Tech will supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide to the automaker’s battery partners — including Envision AESC in the U.S., and ACC and CATL in Europe — from a converter based in Guben, Germany. The automaker also works with Farasis and CATL for its China operations.

Over a five-year term, the agreement represents roughly $1.5 billion in sales and more than 40% of the expected annual production from the planned converter capacity in Guben, according to Rock Tech.

Terms require that Rock Tech source from sites audited by the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurances, according to Mercedes-Benz. Both companies are expected to cooperate in “creating a roadmap to achieving CO2 neutral production” of lithium hydroxide by the end of 2030.

For the first time, researchers at Aalto University examined how much film plastic is produced in the construction of apartment blocks. When the amount of waste is known at different stages of construction, recycling can also be made to work, researchers say.

Gypsum boards, kitchen cabinets, insulating wool, parquet floor—an enormous amount of construction materials arrive at building sites wrapped in film plastic.

“Until now, film plastics have mainly ended up in energy waste, i.e. incineration. It is better than throwing into mixed waste—but not the best solution for the environment,” says Antti Peltokorpi, associate professor of operations management in construction at Aalto University.

Together with doctoral researcher Krishna Chauhan, he studied in a research commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment how much film plastic is produced on average in the construction of apartment blocks. In Finland, accurate information on the amount of plastic waste has not previously been available, which has made it difficult to arrange recycling at construction sites.

The research involved three concrete building sites and, as a benchmark, one wooden block of flats. Separate collection of film plastic waste had been arranged at the construction sites. For the purposes of the research, the emptying times of the collecting bins and the weight of the waste were recorded and data on how much colored plastic or dirty plastic was found.

In concrete element buildings, the average amount of film plastic waste was 0.33 kg per gross square. Per apartment it means approximately 26.2 kg. The wooden block of flats produced 3.4 times more film plastic waste than the concrete site. This is because in wooden blocks of flats, the exterior wall elements must also be protected during transport. In the control building, each wooden element was protected separately. If each bundle of wooden elements is protected, 0.7 times more film plastic is used than in the concrete building site.

Dirty and colored film plastic accounted for an estimated 15–30% of the total amount. Both dirt and the coloring of plastic can make it more difficult to process the material further, says Peltokorpi.

“When different colors end up in recycled plastic, gray recycled plastic is produced. Color plastics are used the most because of branding, but better alternatives should be considered.”

Bins in the right place and at the right time

Based on the findings, the researchers developed a modeling tool that allows the developer or the main contractor to assess in advance how much film plastic waste is generated and at what stages of construction. This means that the correct number of recycling bins is available in the right places, at the right time. Film plastic waste is most produced during the indoor manufacturing phase, especially from furniture, windows and doors, tiling, ceilings and for covering.

However, good logistics is not enough, Peltokorpi emphasizes.

“The role of the main contractor is very important. We must consider how the entire construction site organization, which often includes a large number of subcontractors, can be committed to separate collection.”

The economic incentive for the recycling of film plastic is small. Unlike in the case of mixed waste, there is no waste charge for film plastics. On the other hand, purchasing new recycling bins may cost money. What may also cause low motivation is the fact that while building sites produce enormous amounts of waste, the share of film plastic is very small.

“One apartment block can produce 2,000 kg of film plastic waste—and a hundred times more of other waste, such as concrete and wood,” Peltokorpi says and emphasizes that direct economic benefit is not the only motivator. Many developers may require environmental certificates from the contractor, for example.

An increasing number of companies are also involved in the Green Deal for the construction sector, one of the key objectives of which is to enhance the recycling of plastics in construction.

Recycling could also be made more efficient by using digital product information more efficiently.

“Material deliveries could include information on how much film plastic has been used for packaging and cover,” says Peltokorpi.

Tesla gave an update on the progress of ramping up 4680 battery cell production. It sounds like they are making progress, but the automaker also appears to be reducing dependence on the new cell.

At its Battery Day in 2020, Tesla unveiled its 4680 battery cell and made a big deal about how the new battery cell format could revolutionize the industry by cutting costs by almost 50%.

At the time, the automaker was already operating a pilot production line in Fremont, California.

However, Tesla has admitted that there are several parts of the process of producing the cell in volume that has been harder to deliver than expected.

It has been hard to track the progress, as Tesla is sharing the production capacity of the 4680 cells rather than how it compared to other quarters.

Nonetheless, it sounds like Tesla is making some progress in an update that came with the release of Tesla’s Q3 2022 financial results:

The total number of 4680 cells produced (cells sent to formation) increased 3x sequentially in Q3.

That would be impressive if we knew how many cells Tesla produced in Q2, because if the number was low, a 3x increase is not really impressive.

But Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn did share an additional piece of information during the conference call following the release of the financial results:

The ramp is going well, as Elon said – total output is up 3x quarter over quarter, and production is tracking to exceed 1,000 car cells per week this quarter.

At 60 kWh per car, it would mean 60 MWh of weekly 4680 battery cell production or 3 GWh on an annualized basis. That’s not a massive production capacity, but it is certainly significant.

Interestingly, Tesla also made new comments that show the automaker is aiming not to be dependent on ramping up 4680 cell production for new vehicle programs.

CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla is not using the 4680 cells in the Tesla Semi electric truck.

Musk was also asked if the Cybertruck is going to be affected by the 4680 production ramp. While the CEO didn’t say that the vehicle doesn’t use the cells, like Tesla Semi, he said that he doesn’t expect the electric pickup truck to be affected.