From the Economist, Sept 19:
Mining for raw materials may peak by the mid-2030s
Despite a slowdown in electric-vehicle (EV) sales in some countries, demand for batteries was up by around 40% globally last year, and seems likely to continue at a similar pace. Consequently, the world’s appetite for lithium, the vital ingredient in the lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that dominate the EV market, is expected to exceed 2.4m tonnes in 2030, more than twice its present level.Where all this lithium will come from is a thorny question. Although 70% of the world’s reserves of lithium carbonate (from which it is mined) are in Argentina, Australia and Chile, processing it into a form suitable for use in batteries is a business currently dominated by China. As China also commands the processing of other important battery materials, including manganese, cobalt and nearly all battery-grade graphite, there is concern about the vulnerability of supply chains should China begin restricting supplies of certain raw materials, as it has done in the past. As a result, legislators and carmakers in Europe and North America have been trying to establish local supplies for batteries.
These efforts are about to be given a big boost. Recent breakthroughs in recycling, together with a spate of technological improvements, mean that within a decade or so most of the global demand for raw materials to build new batteries could be met by recycling old ones.
Lithium, manganese and cobalt are widely used to make electrodes called cathodes, the most expensive part of a Li-ion battery. When the battery is recharging, electrons are stripped from lithium atoms on the cathode to create charged particles called ions. The ions then migrate through an electrolyte, typically a liquid medium, to a second electrode called an anode. This is made from graphite, a pure form of carbon. Meanwhile, the electrons created at the cathode travel along the wires of the charging circuit towards the anode, where they reunite with the ions and are stored there. When the battery discharges, the process reverses, with electrons in the circuit powering a device—which in the case of an EV is its electric motor. Although different chemistries can be employed, manganese and cobalt are particularly good at stabilising and boosting the performance of a Li-ion battery.At present battery recycling is mostly confined to recovering raw materials from the scrap produced by gigafactories. A much richer vein will soon present itself, however, as the first wave of EVs reach the end of their lives. By 2040, according to PwC, a professional-services firm, up to 60% of the materials used to make batteries in Europe could come from recycling old ones, helped along by innovations in recovery processes.
Other analysts take a similar view. Globally, the mining of raw ingredients for battery manufacturing could peak by the mid 2030s, reckons RMI, an American think-tank. This will be caused by a combination of better recycling and continuing advances in battery chemistry, which boosts the energy density of cells so that batteries can be made with fewer raw materials. This, RMI believes, might see mineral extraction for batteries being avoided altogether by 2050....
....MUCH MORE
Possibly also of interest:
"A Porsche-backed startup is building a massive battery recycling plant to boost Europe’s EV industry"
There was a time when I thought Veolia, Umicore and maybe Johnson Matthey would be European champions of battery recycling but for whatever reason they never went big.
Battery Recycler Redwood Materials Plans To Enter Manufacturing Business
