Cobalt is facing a number of regulatory measures in Europe which will have an impact on the ability to use cobalt in batteries. This presentation will focus on these regulations, their impacts and alternative approaches to regulations.

As electric vehicle makers continue to pursue ambitious electrification plans, a comprehensive technical and commercial battery strategy increases in importance. Beyond managing cell producers, OEMs have increasingly begun to participate in upstream materials management. In this talk, we explore the changing commercial models between OEMs and mining/chemical companies, as well as the new types of partnerships being struck between these upstream and downstream players.

The lithium and cobalt markets are experiencing corrections from oversupply and China’s subsidy phase-out. However, governments remain committed to fleet electrification and OEMs continue to invest upstream to ensure material security; in China, NMC 811 has started commercialization in 2019 as prices of nickel rise and cobalt fall. This presentation will look at where the markets, supply and prices for lithium and cobalt will be. The speed of electrification, battery choices and supply risks (political and new processing technologies)
will be key.

Downstream Li-ion demand and upstream materials production are diverging significantly in the short term (supply outstrips demand), the medium term (demand outstrips supply) and the long term (demand massively outstrips supply). This presentation will look at forecasted demand and the materials required to satisfy that demand and how the mismatches might be solved over the next ten years.

As the EV market grows, new graphite sources are coming online. However, many new graphites can be shy of performance requirements. This presentation focuses on commerical-scale, cost effective, ALD treatment of natural and synthetic graphites for improving performance in half and full cells.

As the market for lithium-ion batteries grows rapidly in the years and decades ahead, a more efficient pricing system will be needed for the battery raw materials. This presentation will look at how battery raw materials are priced now, how this is changing and what are the outlooks for supply, demand and price for lithium, cobalt and nickel.

Having accurately predicted the lithium price crash, CRU now provides a detailed cost-based assessment of the likely point at which lithium prices will bottom out, and the prospects for longer term carbonate and hydroxide pricing levels based on the capital and operating costs of new supply. This will include an overview of new supply by type of deposit following a re-evaluation of projects in the new lower price environment, discussion of how the supply chain from mine to battery maker is evolving, and relative pricing between lithium products, looking into the longer term.

With demand for battery raw materials in BEVs set to soar over the next decade to reduce emissions and improve our environment, not only do we need to find and fund the raw materials to feed this growth, but the mining industry needs to try and produce these raw materials in the most environmentally friendly and sustainable way possible. Brazilian Nickel’s Paiui project will produce nickel and cobalt feeds for EV cathodes using lower cost, less energy intensive, simple and flexible heap leaching process. Also, innovative ways to reduce the project carbon footprint, with the ultimate vision of being carbon neutral, will be presented.

Assessing Ni market development in the light of the Indonesian ban and growing demand in batteries and other industries.

It is all but certain that renewable energy and vehicle electrification are trends where "the horse has left the barn." While this is a net positive for humanity, it raises some challenging questions around how supply chains are built with sustainability in mind and allowing for optimal returns through management of capital allocation. This presentation will look at the opportunities and challenges of sustainable green growth strategies with a focus on the raw material supply chain.

This presentation will provide an SQM introduction covering online environmental monitoring in Salar de Atacama as well as life cycle analysis of lithium production routes and lithium market and demand outlook.

Euro Manganese Inc. is advancing steadily with the development of a strategic new source of ultra-high purity manganese products in the Czech Republic to serve Europe’s rapidly emerging lithium-ion battery ecosystem. These products will assure customers impeccable provenance and a minimal environmental footprint, as they will be made by reprocessing old mining waste. The Chvaletice Manganese Project is also unique in that it will result in the environmental remediation of a polluted site.

Learn about the latest developments in Solvay’s electrolyte ingredients and specialty polymers that enable our customers to improve the safety and performance of Li-ion batteries while meeting automotive industry requirements. We partner with growing companies who want to address new solutions based on high nickel, high silicon, and high voltage.

Manganese originally had a stabilising function in the NMC cathode material and becomes now a dynamic cathode material able to exchange 2 electrons like high-capacity nickel cathode materials. Manganese is a very affordable and available raw material with less capital investment cost than other battery raw materials to assure affordable EV prices to the majority of people. The challenges are in the mining and processing technologies within a environmentally friendly ecosystem.

The US DOE cost goals associated with large-scale EV adoption require low-cost (i.e. $10/kg) cathode. Cobalt thrifting is a strategy to achieve manufacturing cost goals, but it is counter-productive for cobalt recovery – can the recycling industry survive? This presentation will discuss recycling methodologies in light of cost goals and market realities and how OnTo’s approaches are technically appropriate for the EV industry.

By 2025, it is estimated that 3.5 million used PEVs may be retiring worldwide with commutative capacity of around 150 GWh and roughly equivalent of 1 million tons of cell materials including cobalt, lithium, and nickel. These batteries usually have between 70-80 of their original capacity and have shown to be technically and environmentally viable for reuse in second applications such as in grid, perhaps not economically. We will discuss barriers and opportunities for the PEV battery second use and how it could impact the supply chain.

This presentation will explore the need for ‘mega’ scale lithium-ion battery resource recovery globally, the challenges of lithium-ion (Li-ion) recycling and how Li-Cycle™ is able to overcome these challenges to recover 80-100% of critical materials from Li-ion batteries. Li-Cycle Corp, (Li-Cycle) is a clean technology company that strives to solve the global Li-ion battery end-of-life problem and to meet the rapidly growing demand for critical battery materials.

Evolution of Li-ion battery suggests that less amount of cobalt will be used in the cathode (kg/kWh basis). Installations are also expected to increase sharply in the coming years. Recycling cobalt from the end-of-life batteries represents an economic solution for many battery manufacturers to secure their supply chain.

The ReCell Center, an advanced battery recycling program funded by the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office, is working to develop, scale-up, and demonstrate recycle processes that reduce cost and increase revenue to improve the economics of responsible end-of-life lithium-ion battery management. This presentation will summarize ReCell’s work in direct recycling to create a profitable battery recycling system as it enters its second year.