Will cobalt ever die? And more
Until we have an answer, Tesla chooses to face the music
The big news this week is the same big news as last week. Tesla signed a new deal for cobalt from Anglo-Swiss juggernaut Glencore.
And the next day, Switzerland said it’s investigating Glencore for corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it gets its cobalt for EV batteries.
For people in the tech industry, problematic cobalt is not a new thing, but its issues are often phrased in terms of cost. Cobalt is expensive, but it was expensive even before Amnesty International started demanding companies eradicate child labor.
What? I thought people were trying to get rid of cobalt altogether?
You’re right. Cobalt has been one of the most troubled metals since the 1970s. The majority of world supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and since 2016, companies like Tesla, Microsoft, Apple, and Google have faced public pressure to expunge child labor in their supply chains. Last December, they were sued.
The plaintiffs, 14 Congolese families, are angry, and understandably. Despite the human rights violations dominating the discussion, cobalt from Congo is approaching almost double its 2016 levels. And let’s be clear: The problems with cobalt or with the Congo didn’t exist before industry wanted the metal.
In 2018, Elon Musk said the next generation of batteries would be cobalt-free. But at the time, cobalt was experiencing a threefold price spike. Now that prices are down, his motivation seems to have shifted.
from Flickr:
Tesla addressed its cobalt supply in its most recent impact report:
Because Tesla recognizes the higher risks of human rights issues within cobalt supply chains, particularly for child labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (“DRC”), we have made a significant effort to establish processes to remove these risks from our supply chain. We also recognize that mining conducted in a responsible and ethical manner is an important part of the economic and social well-being of those communities.
Tech manufacturers are struggling to get away from the metal. But it’s possible. Scientists have been trying to find alternatives since the 1970s.
Last month, Chinese Svolt announced its first cobalt-free batteries. Tesla, before its Glencore deal, received final approval to partner with Chinese battery giant CATL on its first cobalt-free battery technology. It will be Lithium-Iron-Phosphate, an idea that has been around for a while.
If the cobalt-free, lithium-ion battery has long been a goal — even a reality — why does cobalt refuse to die?
Companies and scientists say it’s hard to remove cobalt while maintaining battery life and efficiency. Regardless whether cobalt is in high demand, it will continue to be produced, because it’s largely a byproduct of processing copper from Congo’s ore. It’s a gnarly question, and one that I’ll continue to write on.
But the most important message the deal sends is one highlighted by Andy Home in Reuters:
It’s a boost for cobalt’s prospects, both in terms of physical demand and, more importantly, in the apparent admission that cobalt isn’t going away as a battery material any time soon.
Tesla knows it’s putting itself under more scrutiny, and maybe it will use the spotlight to reform cobalt for the better.
Reuters has more details on Switzerland’s Glencore investigation.
Two weeks before the Tesla-Glencore deal, another major cobalt industry shift occurred.
The Financial Times reported that another of the world’s biggest cobalt companies bowed to advocates’ pressure to exit Congo. Huayou Cobalt is also China’s biggest producer, and plaintiffs in the lawsuits against the tech companies said they worked at mines owned by Huayou.
But packing up and leaving isn’t always the best solution, or even a solution. Huayou said in a statement that they were continuing to work on “formalisation projects.” Thousands of families rely on mining income, and human rights groups have looked to companies to apply health and safety standards and formalize the sector, rather than deplete it.
Lucky for Huayou, it’s been investing in a surefire nickel/cobalt project going in Indonesia (my story).
And Tesla announced the same week a deal for battery manufacturing with Panasonic, which through Sumitomo has found a nickel mine in Indonesia that may produce cobalt as well (also my story).
Weekly InQuarry
Are even rare earth elements a kind of fossil fuel?
Scientists at the University of Tokyo think tracking the fossils of 34.5-million-year-old fish can lead to more rare earth metal deposits. In a paper this month, they recorded the presence of ancient fish that may have accumulated the metals in deep-ocean deposits as they consumed metals then died off.
Millions of years later, the deep seabeds where they found them, around Minamitorishima Island in Japan, have one of the richest deposits of rare earth elements and yttrium. The island has been called a “game changer” with “semi-infinite” resources critical to turbines and engines.
The island already has an airstrip, but I haven’t been able to find whether its seas have been handed over to a company yet. The islands’ website says only meteorological and defense facilities are present.
What else in Industry and Research news?
Rare Earths in the US:
US efforts for independence from China in the rare earths industry got afraid they would be doing the opposite. The veteran Mountain Pass mine in California won a Pentagon development grant alongside a Lynas processing project in Texas, until the grant program was canceled. The reasons: US government was worried about China’s stake in the MP mine. Lynas has said their project is back on the table.
The Bear Lodge Project in Wyoming is getting closer to becoming a viable rare earths mining and smelting operation. The company, Rare Elements Resources, says it has operated a successful pilot plant producing oxides of Neodymium and Praseodymium, used in turbines and defense-related technologies. And it wants funding.
Another Wyoming project received federal funding from the Department of Energy for a pilot plant to extract rare earth elements from coal ash.
Another Australian miner, Arafura, is looking to the US to provide the minerals for its mineral processing.
Other stuff:
New sodium-ion battery performs on par with some lithium-ion batteries
Graphite usually makes up the greatest proportion of lithium-ion batteries. What if you just replace that with lithium itself? A Stanford team thinks lithium metal batteries could double the electricity of lithium-ion batteries. Blue Solutions is already trying something similar.
Recommended reads
Recent research in The Lancet has shown that having a parent who works in a copper/cobalt mine in Katanga, Congo greatly increases the risk of birth defects in newborns. Unfortunately, it has taken almost two decades since the first reports of drastic conditions in the mines for a scientific study on the health effects to appear. (The Guardian)
Recent reports point to mines as hotspots for COVID-19 , as well as companies for failing to meet recommended epidemic restrictions. A coalition of NGOs wrote, “Mining companies and many governments have pushed to categorise mining as an essential service, enabling operations to continue despite substantial risk. In doing so, they have become key vectors for the spread of the virus and are putting communities, rural and urban populations, and their workforces, at great risk.” A statement was signed by 335 organizations and 214 individuals.
I found this an interesting take from the IEA EV report – the push to reduce cobalt in batteries drove the price down, which has now disincentivized recycling. Governments, then, need regulation to incentivize recycling. But cobalt prices didn’t decrease only because batteries began using less of the metal, and prices have returned to levels similar to those before Amnesty International began demanding transparency in 2016. An interesting idea nonetheless.
Thanks for reading! I’m Ian Morse, and this is Green Rocks, a newsletter to keep clean energy transition minerals truly clean.
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