An overview of the supply chain dynamics at the center of lithium ion economy, from critical raw materials and chemical components through to their battery cells and EV, ESS, and portable applications.

Positive fundamentals drove lithium and cobalt price rallies at the start of 2021. Seaborne lithium carbonate prices appear to have reversed a three-year price decline. Cobalt prices surged based on an interplay of renewed raw material supply tightness and strong plug-in electric vehicle sales in China and Europe. Do the price increases reflect the start of a new cycle, or are these just temporary reversals? This presentation will assess battery metals performances in 2021 and provide our price projections, taking into account PEV sales, battery mix, metals demand, project financing, and supply cost.

While COVID-19 has accelerated talk of De-Globalization, other events such as container ships running aground in the Suez Canal or a global shortage of semiconductors have served to reinforce the idea that supply chains need to be shorter, more transparent, and more resilient. This presentation will attempt to offer a realistic view of how supply chains can be regionalized, what the obvious and hidden costs are, and who will win and who will lose both economically and geopolitically as the global economy electrifies and digitizes.

Is cobalt destined to be the choke point of the EV supply chain? Roughly 70% of cobalt supply is mined in the DRC and most of that mine feed finds its way to China for refining.  China controls a majority of refined cobalt market, including almost 80% of the cobalt sulfate chemical required for lithium-ion batteries. What opportunities exist to diversify mine supply and refining away from these two countries?

When batteries are stored or used, unwanted reactions occur inside leading to degradation of performance. Many of these unwanted reactions, such as transition metal dissolution, lithium inventory loss, and solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) growth, can be slowed by coatings the cathode and anode powders before the battery is made. This talk will present an alternative to pitch coating on SPG anode powders.

Today less than 1% of the automotive market is Electric Vehicle. With this very small market share, xEV already consume more than 60% of the total Li-ion battery production, more than 40% of the cobalt production, and more than 50% of the lithium production. With conservative xEV forecasts (5 million EV sold per year in 2025), the impact on the lithium-ion battery market and supply chain will be huge.

Vulcan Energy is aiming to become the first Zero Carbon Lithium producer in the world. We are extracting a hot geothermal brine from the Upper Rhine valley in Germany, allowing us to produce renewable energy and sustainably extract lithium from the largest resource in Europe. We are looking at supplying the European battery and car makers, which represents the fastest growing market for lithium in the world. There is currently no lithium production in Europe, more than 80% is coming from China, which is a supply chain risk. It is also an environmental risk as current production processes are carbon heavy, use harsh chemicals, and consume a lot water. Vulcan will address Europe’s need for local and sustainably produced lithium.

Electric Vehicles are becoming more widespread due to worldwide environmental concerns. In particular, batteries, which are an important component in EV, are being developed by each company to enable safe and long-distance cruising. We have developed a heat insulating material for lithium-ion batteries as one of the safety measures. This presentation will introduce a heat insulating material that can withstand high temperatures and is durable even for long-term use.

The transport electrification, wider use of renewable energy and expansion of energy storage push nickel demand higher. The mining industry is under pressure to meet this growing demand with responsibly mined nickel units. The presentation will focus on nickel demand projections by industry and potential additional supply sources, including an update on Indonesian projects and possible constraints with the NPI to nickel sulphate conversion plans. The nickel incentive price required to bring additional metal units to the market will be also examined.

We will present on the challenges and implications of scaling up both synthetic and natural graphite to meet the demand from electrification. Will look at market fundamentals, project pipelines, ESG challenges and costs for OEMs.

In this talk, CRU Principal Consultant Alex Laugharne will set out how rapidly growing nickel supply concentration in Indonesia and China conflicts sharply with Western battery sector consumers’ strategic, security of supply, and ESG goals. Elsewhere, gaps in the nickel supply chain from mine to batteries leaves consumers struggling for local supply, and new mining projects without a route to the rapidly growing battery market. This talk will describe what can be done by stakeholders across the industry to address these increasingly critical issues.

Euro Manganese stands to become the only primary producer of high purity manganese in the European Union, as the region works to establish a strong and sustainable local battery supply chain to serve its fast-growing EV industry. The Chvaletice Project is designed to meet increasingly stringent EU regulations, which will require battery raw materials providers to address the full product life cycle, including carbon footprint and requirements for recycling and using recycled materials.

Current recycling technologies are a technical mismatch for advanced battery materials. Manufacturers continue to accept and embrace these expensive approaches on one hand, then decry the razor thin margins of lithium-ion manufacturing on the other. With 200+ giga factories expected by the end of the decade, the lithium-ion battery industry has a great opportunity to eliminate $20 billion/y in costs by that time. To do this, manufacturers can adopt the low-cost, high efficiency direct recycling opportunity.  Efficiency is critical for competitive US manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries and eliminating the 5-10% cost on manufacturing due to scrap can help to double already razor thin margins. OnTo’s environmentally friendly, innovative direct recycling technology can essentially eliminate this loss in manufacturing.

New electric vehicles rolling off a show room floor only represent the middle of the value chain story. It’s the material sourcing and battery construction as well as the end of battery life that requires sustainable solutions if the value chain is to be green from end to end. Battery recycling creates generates raw materials for new battery manufacture with responsible sourcing and the circular economy borne in mind. Further, if done sustainably, recycling significantly reduces the CO2 footprint of electric vehicles. Neometals is part of the solution.

As the ReCell Center moves into its third year, it continues to invent new technologies and refine existing recycling processes. The Center is focused on scaling up its technologies and applying them to the processing of both manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries. The presentation will highlight the progress of the Center.

What are the current challenges of establishing a proper battery recycling industry? We wish to share our thoughts on what solutions can be put in place to bring recycling to scale and what needs to be developed technically and commercially to have a full close-loop on battery materials.

We are approaching a point where the volume of batteries will allow for the upgrading of historical black mass. HBR is investing in technologies (selective separation technology) that will recover material. This material will be more amenable to being put back into the battery supply chain. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of these technologies and timing with implementation.