Companies Need Critical Minerals for Electronics, Medical Equipment, Crops, and More. These 3 Techniques (and Others) Could Make Some Easier To Get. “The Fast Lane” series zooms in on some of the thousands of technologies born in national laboratories that companies can license today. This iteration focuses on tools and … [continued]
The energy crisis highlights the need to avoid new dependencies for critical raw materials. Stepping up the EU’s ‘minerals diplomacy’ can offer a way forward – if coupled with financial firepower. Every oil crisis exposes how vulnerable Europe is to fossil fuel imports. Switching to renewables and electric vehicles will … [continued]
By Dhruv Soni, Senior Technical Program Manager at Tesla Battery Minerals and Metals, CELI 2025 Fellow In the clean energy boom of the 2020s, the United States has continued to lead the world in early-stage innovation, especially across next-generation chemical process industries such as carbon capture, hydrogen and ammonia, sustainable … [continued]
ChatGPT generated scene showing the gap between AUV fleet concepts and real world deepwater constraints, with defunct AUVs on the seafloor under operational ones.
I was pleased to be asked to complete the technoeconomic assessment of seabed mining by the National Ocean Protection Coalition and to join the webinar discussing its results. It is not often that I have the opportunity to bring together decades of work in complex systems analysis, technology readiness, and … [continued]
How Europe should finance transition mineral projects effectively and responsibly. As Europe accelerates its efforts to secure the supply of critical raw materials vital for clean energy technologies, including batteries, ensuring diverse supply chains will be key. Several initiatives such as Strategic Partnerships, Clean Trade & Investment Partnerships, Global Gateway … [continued]
A team searches for seaweed samples on the shore of Moira Bay, Alaska. Photo by Stefanie Van Wychen, NREL.
Some Seaweeds Accumulate Critical Minerals. NREL Scientists Are Studying Which Ones Do It Best Seaweed: the phyto(mining) frontier? Puns aside, seaweed is emerging as a surprising mining source. NREL chemist Stefanie Van Wychen and a team of five departed Juneau, Alaska, on an early spring—and surprisingly green—April morning. The crew … [continued]
A geologist and geophysicist at Talon examine high-grade nickel core samples from the company’s exploration operations in Minnesota. (Image by Talon Metals.)
By Julia Poliscanova, Senior Director for Emobility and Supply Chains at T&E, and Tommy Pratama, Executive Director for Traction Energy Asia Indonesia is big when it comes to the new race to secure minerals and cleantech. With some of the world’s largest reserves of metals like nickel and cobalt, the country is fuelling … [continued]
China has a major role at each stage of the global battery supply chain and dominates interregional trade of minerals. China imported almost 12 million short tons of raw and processed battery minerals, accounting for 44% of interregional trade, and exported almost 11 million short tons of battery materials, packs, … [continued]
The electric vehicle revolution is genuinely in full swing, with almost one out of every 4 new vehicles having a plug in 2024. The core element of that revolution is the batteries, and the essence of those batteries is a handful of metals. So, the most critical conundrum is how … [continued]
ChatGPT generated panoramic image of a big mine with critical mineral symbols floating in the air overhead
Late in 2024 I had the privilege of sitting down with one of the world’s leading experts on critical minerals, Gavin Mudd, director of the centre for critical minerals intelligence at the British Geological Survey. The second half of the conversation included a great deal on why we’re both optimistic … [continued]
