How nations are rewiring supply chains for critical minerals

Silicon Valley startup Lilac Solutions has a method to get lithium for batteries that’s cheaper, easier on the environment and less water-intensive than mining: it plans to pull it from the Great Salt Lake.The U.S. could become a major supplier of lithium for batteries in the next few years after the Trump administration took a stake in the developer of a massive mine in Nevada. But Silicon Valley startup Lilac Solutions thinks it’s got a better idea that avoids the higher costs and environmental harms of traditional mining: extract the pricey mineral from briny water at oil fields and sites like the Great Salt Lake in Utah instead of digging it out of the ground.

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, current policies are struggling to keep pace with the rapidly changing world. Given the numerous challenges Europe faces, this must change, she emphasized in a speech at the Berlin Global Dialogue. A prime example of the urgency is China’s export restrictions on rare earths and battery materials. The EU now intends to address the significant impacts through the RESourceEU plan.

Article by EV central

Concerns about the values of decade-old EVs could evaporate overnight because of a pilot program initiated by the Chinese government. The scheme is designed to recover as much as 99.6 per cent of a high-voltage battery’s nickel, cobalt and manganese from used packs. According to CarNewsChina, the country’s General Administration of Market Supervision is drafting the  new industry recycling standards that will introduce mandatory procedures on how to dismantle and recycle power packs to slash waste.

Article by Financial Times

 The EU must move quickly to back the critical minerals sector and allow more state intervention after China banned key exports of raw materials, a group pushing for energy security has said. The next EU budget must include “substantial, dedicated” funding for critical minerals, with money drawn from energy and decarbonisation budget lines, the European Initiative for Energy Security said on Wednesday, following Beijing’s announcement of an export ban earlier this month. 

US president Donald Trump has signed critical minerals agreements with Malaysia and Thailand during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur, as countries around the globe position themselves as alternatives to Chinese dominance in rare earths following Beijing’s recent export controls.