Monthly Archives: February 2023

The New Generation of Batteries With Kunal Phalpher, Li-Metal Corporation

Major players in the battery space thrive on the “what’s next” factor, but for years, the focus has only been on cathodes. To level up battery technologies, a major change to the anode side is electrifying the industry.

When it comes to Li-Metal, new anode technologies are helping them forge the future of batteries. Listen in as President Kunal Phalpher breaks down how Li-Metal is improving the process and technology to produce the lithium anodes and lithium metal needed by next generation batteries.

‘It’s a question on everyone’s mind’ – Li-Metal on whether lithium supply can meet demand

(Kitco News) – Better and cheaper batteries is Li-Metal’s goal, said CEO and co-founder Maciej Jastrzebski.

On Wednesday Jastrzebski spoke to Kitco.

Li-Metal (CSE:LIM) is developing technology to improve the next generation of lithium-ion batteries. Jastrzebski said lithium-ion manufacturers will switch to different battery configurations, such as solid state. Li-Metal plans to have tech that will improve battery performance. In January Li-Metal commissioned an anode production facility in Rochester, New York. The company has a second facility in Markham, Ontario.

“It’s really about producing those anode materials at a much lower cost and at the sizes and formats needed for the next generation of EV batteries,” said Jastrzebski.

Before starting Li-Metal Jastrzebski had worked for Hatch in mineral processing. Li-Metal will scale as electrical vehicles scale. He was asked if lithium supply can meet forecast demand.

“It’s a question on everyone’s mind,” according to Jastrzebski, who said that years of under-investment is partially to blame for the current lithium crunch. Jastrzebski suggested the short term will likely be challenging, but the “tremendous pull and push from governments and major market participants should overcome that.”

“There’s been so much pressure put on developing these lithium assets. We’ve seen governments and major market participants really fully understand the strategic importance of this industry to future growth.”

Podcast: Maciej Jastrzebski, CEO of Li-Metal

In this week’s podcast we revisit the world of advanced battery materials, as we chat with the CEO of Li-Metal [CSE:LIM], a Canadian and Frankfurt-listed [FRA:5ZO] battery materials specialist. The company visited New York in June for 121 Mining Investment, but this is a chance to hear CEO Maciej Jastrzebski taking our questions directly.

If you have been following our coverage of battery materials specialist Nano One you will know that the future of battery tech depends not just on the amount of raw materials you can dig out of the ground. It also revolves around how those batteries are put together, and whether we can make them more efficient.

Canadian-based Li-Metal is already dealing with numerous inquiries from various quarters from potential customers of its output, including the EV sector. It specialises in the manufacture of lithium metal and lithium metal anode batteries. It is in effect working on the development of next generation batteries, for vehicles and other requirements, using production methods that are more sustainable than existing products. It creates lighter, more energy-dense, and ultimately safer batteries.

Next-generation batteries are the successor to today’s lithium-ion batteries, enabling longer ranges and better performance, to a factor of as much as 100%.

Li-Metal only went public on the CSE last year, raising CAD 32m in the process. It already had an operating lithium-ion facility in Rochester, NY, and has now also opened what it calls an advanced anode development facility in Ontario. Sample products are already being delivered to potential clients.

Of most significance in our view was the inking of a deal earlier this year with Blue Solutions, the largest developer in the world of solid-state lithium-metal batteries. It has also attracted the attention of the Canadian government, which provided the company with a grant from Next Generation Canada.

The lithium anode market is approaching a crunch point – it is expected to exceed USD 10bn per year by 2030, and USD 40bn by 2040. Over 90% of lithium output now comes from China, giving the country a commanding role in future lithium production. That puts enormous pressure on lithium supplies from outside China, and is one reason why many investors are getting so excited about the sector.

That’s not slowing the EV market however, with many major manufacturers already working hard to deliver electric vehicles over the next decade or so.

Li-Metal is taking a two-pronged approach to this, which we discuss on the podcast. It is aiming to build out a lithium metal strategy for both North America and Europe, currently in its pilot stage, and secondly a lithium anode strategy which it is currently defining based on customer requirements.

We are very excited about the prospects for Li-Metal. The deal with Blue Solutions, which makes the batteries for Daimler buses, is obviously a game changer for the company. It reports 20 ongoing discussions with auto makers and 12 next-gen battery companies currently actively sampling its materials. Listen to the podcast to find out more!

Li-Metal’s technologies targeting next-gen battery market

Maciej Jastrzebski, Li-Metal CEO on left. (Image courtesy of Li-Metal).

Born in 2018 after a series of lunchtimes conversations on Toronto’s Bay Street between former Hatch engineers Maciej Jastrzebski and Tim Johnston, Li-Metal Corp. (CSE: LIM) is a company currently providing low-cost anodes to battery developers working on cells undergoing qualification trials for the coming generations of electric vehicles.

Building on this momentum, the firm is also taking steps towards building out capacity and producing its own lithium metal to become a reliable local supplier of critical materials.

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“Li-Metal’s overarching strategy is to entrench then grow,” CEO Jastrzebski told MINING.COM.

Convinced that lithium metal batteries are the next big thing, the Canadian company developed a lithium metal production process that takes lithium carbonate, as recycled or virgin powder or granules, and dissolves it in molten salt. This is then electrolyzed in a membrane electrowinning cell which splits the lithium carbonate into technical-grade lithium metal and off-gas. The technical grade lithium metal is refined further to create high-performance, battery-grade metal.

According to Jastrzebski, this process is less expensive than existing lithium production processes, can utilize domestic chemical sources, and is more sustainable.

“Our lithium metal production uses a different feedstock; lithium carbonate, rather than lithium chloride, which is very advantageous. This requires a two-compartment cell with separate electrolytes for the cathode and anode, so the structure of the cell and operating philosophies are quite different compared to the conventional process,” the executive said. “The only similarity is that as the conventional process, it is a molten salt electrolysis process.”

MDC: What makes it more sustainable?

Jastrzebski: One of the biggest advantages of our process is that it avoids electrolyzing lithium chloride. When you electrolyze lithium chloride, you release about five tonnes of toxic chlorine gas for every tonne of metal you produce. This manifests as both fugitive emissions in the plant, and tail gas that has to be captured and treated. By eliminating this source of emissions, we are able to reduce the environmental impact of the process by-products. Similarly, because our process doesn’t require sophisticated gas-treatment equipment, we eliminate the energy and materials associated with its operation.

MDC: What makes it cheaper?

Jastrzebski: Firstly, most high-purity lithium chloride is made from lithium carbonate, so by using lithium carbonate directly we eliminate a conversion step that normally adds to the input cost of the feedstock. Secondly, because we don’t need to build and operate the same sophisticated gas treatment equipment, we save both on the initial build cost of the plant, and on the operating cost relative to the conventional process.

New anode technology

As it develops its lithium metal production technology, Li-Metal is also working on a new lithium anode technology.

The feedstock for both developments is obtained in the open market but once commercial-scale operations begin, the intention is to source sustainable, North American raw materials, including lithium carbonate from recycled batteries.

Jastrzebski said the company’s anode technology uses a roll-to-roll deposition process that consists of unwinding wide-format micron-scale material from the substrate roll and then passing the substrate through one or more deposition zones where lithium metal is applied together with a combination of other materials. From there, the completed anode is wound onto the product roll and packaged in argon gas for shipping, battery production or storage.

“The foundation behind our anode products is roll-to-roll physical vapour deposition – this is a technology that has been successfully applied in producing large format low-cost metallic products for decades,” the CEO said. “Our approach is unique because of the variety of materials we can deposit in a single pass. This gives us the capability to impart a variety of properties to the anode materials that can be used to enhance the electrochemical or economic performance of the materials.”

According to Jastrzebski, Li-Metal’s lithium anode technology uses less lithium for every square meter of anode compared to the alternatives available today.

“Existing lithium metal anodes are made by first extruding and rolling lithium into thin sheets. They can make thick foils that are between 40 and 150 microns but it becomes costly and difficult to scale as you approach the thicknesses that are needed for next-generation batteries,” he said. “Our technology does the opposite – it gets more economical as the anode thickness decreases and the cell size increases – which is exactly where next-generation batteries are going.”

MDC: What are Li-Metal’s plans once the patents for the anode technology and the lithium metal production process are approved?

Jastrzebski: We have a healthy technology and product development roadmap and we are continuously expanding our patent portfolio – we’ve filed additional patent applications this year, so we don’t really see patent approval as an end-state, but rather as part of our ongoing process.

We will also proliferate our technologies. We plan to supply and potentially license our anode production technology to battery and EV manufacturers, supply lithium metal consumables to operators of the technology, and continue to supply high-quality anode materials for high-performance batteries with pre-commercial and early commercial production runs to feed the pipeline.

Our key next steps are to commission our in-house advanced anode materials lab at our Markham, Ontario facility – we expect the work we have planned there to yield additional patentable IP. This will be shortly followed by the completion of our pilot roll-to-roll anode production facility in Rochester, New York where we will industrialize the research done in the anode lab. We are also anticipating the completion of our new lithium metal production pilot facility in Markham in the coming months. Looking further ahead, we are aiming to complete the engineering of our prototype commercial-scale anode production equipment and facility in 2022.

MDC: Where does Li-Metal fit in the next-generation battery supply chain?

Jastrzebski: Li-Metal can be thought of as a mid-stream supplier. Our value chain starts with bulk lithium carbonate and ends with rolls of high-performance metallic lithium anodes ready to go into battery cells. We are a customer of the chemical producers and a supplier to battery manufacturers. We can also potentially supply intermediate products such as metallic lithium to other industries.

The next-generation battery supply chain requires a completely evolved supply chain that doesn’t even exist yet. Producing next-generation batteries for electric vehicles with existing technologies can be costly, using more lithium than needed. Ultimately our technologies develop the building blocks for next-generation batteries creating more cost-effective, longer range, and safer electric vehicles.

Tech update: Canadian companies helping Ukrainian refugees resettle; push to make electric vehicles more attractive


Imagine having to uproot your life in the blink of an eye to ensure your family’s safety.

That’s what millions of Ukrainians now have to do as they flee the ongoing war in their country. And that’s why Canadian tech companies are stepping up to help them.

Tech founders Kostyantyn Khomutov of Ottawa-based GBatteries and Solon Angel of MindBridge are leading a new initiative called “Ukraine to Canada,” which helps refugees make their way out of the war zone.

What happens next: Since the initiative started in March, more than 20 families have connected with Kostyantyn and his team, sharing their stories and struggles and looking for support. One of the families, Viktoriia and her two children, was forced to pack up their lives in a hurry as they heard explosions outside their home. She asked that her last name not be published to protect her family’s safety.

We decided to leave our town,” Viktoriia told Ukraine to Canada. “Our house had already been bombed and there was nothing left to lose.

She is currently in Poland and Ukraine to Canada volunteers are helping with her family’s visa applications to relocate here.

The right thing to do: Khomutov and Angel jumped into action as the Ukrainian refugee crisis grew too big to ignore.

The war in Ukraine is having a devastating impact on regular, peaceful citizens that want to live their normal lives,” said Khomutov, who was born in Ukraine. “As a group of immigrants and fellow human beings ourselves, we identified the clear and immediate need to facilitate shelter and stability for Ukrainian citizens fleeing their homes.

Not only is the initiative helping refugees relocate and find a place to stay in Canada, economic development agency Invest Ottawa is also helping their effort by providing office space for workers who were forced to upend their careers in Ukraine.

Tech stepping up: “Ukraine to Canada” follows a larger tech community trend with other ventures extending help for those displaced by the war. Airbnb.org is offering free, short-term housing to up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. There is also the Tech For Ukraine campaign, which has recruited more than 450 IT companies from 40 countries. The firms will help NGOs for free to address digital challenges, including protecting against Russian cyberattacks.

Understanding and solving consumers’ concerns with electric vehicles

The federal and Ontario governments are putting the pedal to the metal when it comes to electric hybrid vehicles. They each announced more than $130 million to upgrade a Honda plant in Alliston to produce hybrid EVs.

Why are governments giving EVs the green light? More Canadians are looking to pump the brakes on gas vehicles. With the price of fuel spiking to record highs, a new KPMG survey found that 61 per cent of Canadians say our vulnerable oil supply has convinced them it’s time to buy an EV. Thirty per cent say they regret they haven’t bought an EV already.

In the third quarter of 2020, just 3.5 per cent of total new vehicles registered in Canada were zero-emission vehicles. While the desire to own EVs has increased this year, some issues may be holding buyers back. This includes the time it takes to charge the vehicle, how much range the battery has and the lack of charging infrastructure.

Solutions are accelerating: These issues are widely recognized and several Canadian companies are looking to solve them. Toronto-based Li Metal is designing new technologies that will help produce cheaper, cleaner batteries that will help EVs travel farther and address the “charge and range anxiety” for prospective owners.

“Our efforts will help improve the range, safety, and cost of an EV,” said Maciej Jastrzebski, co-founder and CEO of Li Metal. “We produce ultrathin metallic lithium anodes that are designed to reduce the cost of the batteries while at the same time improving the energy density.”

Toronto’s Peak Power has developed technologies that allow EVs to provide backup power to homes and sell electricity back to the grid during moments of peak demand. The company says this creates income for drivers that will offset the cost of owning an EV.

“EVs are thought of as a mobility asset. We see EVs as a form of mobile energy storage,” said Matthew Sachs, chief operating officer of Peak Power. “When connected to industrial facilities or commercial buildings, battery energy storage can help balance supply and demand on the grid, reducing the most polluting and most expensive hours of energy use.”

Major accomplishment for Indigenous tech leader

Bobbie Racette has made Canadian tech history. She is one of the first Indigenous women to close a Series A round for her company The Virtual Gurus, which raised $8.4 million.

The Calgary-based venture uses technology to match organizations with virtual assistants from Canada and the U.S. It helps them with administration and bookkeeping, customer service support and other tasks like marketing. It also provides income-earning opportunities to under-represented individuals. Racette says it is important to have diversity in the innovation and tech sectors.

“It says something about the lack of representation that I’m the only (Indigenous woman) to close a Series A so far,” said Racette. “There just isn’t a lot of representation. That’s why I’m hoping to inspire other Indigenous women to pursue tech careers and launch their own ventures.”

Addressing systemic challenges: Racette says society needs to get past this concept of money trauma, the idea that Indigenous people don’t have the financial skills. She also says investors need to have confidence in Indigenous women to successfully build a business.

Racette’s accomplishment is a Canadian rarity. According to a report by the Innovation Economy Council, there is a need to support more Indigenous founders in tech. Only 39 per cent of the 36 hubs covered in the report track information about Indigenous identity. Of those 14 hubs, only six report supporting ventures with at least one Indigenous founder.

“Additional research on the Indigenous technology market and landscape is needed to help inform investors of the great potential within the community,” said Jarret Leaman, co-founder of the Centre for Indigenous Innovation and Technology. “Only then will we be able to see more Indigenous technology founders entering Series A.”

In other news …

  • While many companies took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, Toronto’s MedMe Health used it to grow its pharmacy operations software. The company raised $3.4 million in seed funding for its platform to help pharmacies engage with patients, streamline workflows, and automate documentation. Microsoft’s venture capital arm led the round and MedMe says it plans to expand into the U.S.
  • For Montreal-based Talent.com, it’s all in the name. The jobs listing startup that previously changed its name from Neuvoo just raised $120 million in new Series B funding as it gears up to take on players like Indeed and ZipRecruiter.
  • 1PointFive announced that Airbus has pre-purchased 400,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits over four years, with an option to buy more in the future. The Texas company uses technology created by Squamish B.C.’s Carbon Engineering and will help Airbus to offset its carbon emissions.
  • Mosaic Manufacturing and PolyUnity Tech Inc. announced a partnership to bring automated 3D printing to the health-care industry. By combining PolyUnity’s design services with Mosaic’s manufacturing tech, the two companies aim to improve patient outcomes while reducing health organizations’ operational costs.

Booming electric-car production is creating a mad dash for lithium. Meet 13 startups angling to cash in on a supply-chain weak link that may soon be worth $34.3 billion.

Sigma Lithium is just one company racing to tackle the auto industry’s lithium crisis.

  • Lithium is a crucial component of electric-car batteries.
  • The Ukraine invasion, which threatens nickel, has elevated the need to secure battery metal supply.
  • Here are 13 outfits seizing the opportunity to play a part in the growing lithium business.

The crisis in Ukraine has spelled trouble for the global electric-vehicle supply chain as it relates to nickel, a critical material in EV batteries. But it has also relit the spotlight on another metal key to battery production: lithium.

As a result, startups are racing to lead in an accelerating lithium market that could hit $34.3 billion by 2030 — 85% of which would be for the EV market, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Even though legacy automakers and startups are toying with different battery chemistries in search of the right mix of cost, performance, and availability of supply, many remain reliant on lithium-heavy tech. If companies lean on other lithium-based chemistries to reduce need for nickel or cobalt (the latter comes from problematic mining practices), demand for the metal could skyrocket.

But the lithium supply readily available, especially in the US, is expected to shrink as EV adoption accelerates and demand spikes. It’s an access problem, but being dependent on foreign sources (like China, which dominates the space, according to Global Data) also raises concerns around national security. President Joe Biden recently invoked the Defense Production Act to encourage domestic production of EV-battery minerals to mitigate that risk. And Elon Musk recently tweeted about his interest in a play in the lithium space.

“It takes somewhere between three to five years to bring lithium to market from the time you put capital on the ground to the time you actually can sell, can market that lithium,” Pedro Palandrani, the director of research at the fund-management firm Global X ETFs, said. “That inflexible nature of the supply side of the equation really creates these price increases for lithium and bottlenecks.”

Giants like Albemarle, Ganfeng Lithium, and Sociedad Química y Minera have long dominated the booming lithium space, but dozens of startups are entering the scene. Here’s a look at 13 of the outfits eyeing bigger parts of the space:

Piedmont Lithium

HQ: Belmont, North Carolina

CEO: Keith Phillips

The 6-year-old company is working to convert lithium resources into lithium hydroxide for batteries. The Carolina Tin-Spodumene Belt, the only lithium deposit of its kind in the US, is one of the most important sites globally.

Piedmont is identifying prospective partners, such as EV startups and battery companies, to invest in and help fund Piedmont’s projects. To Piedmont, the best way for industry stakeholders to secure enough critical supply at a reasonable cost is to coinvest alongside a Piedmont Lithium asset.

“There will be companies that don’t get material and can’t produce enough cars. There will be others that get the material at very high cost. And there will be others that make investments to both secure the supply so they get the material and control the cost,” Phillips told Insider. “The only thing that’s going to hold back EV penetration is the supply chain.”

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Maciej Jastrzebski is the CEO of Toronto’s Li-Metal, a 4-year-old lithium-production startup.

Li-Metal

HQ: Toronto

CEO: Maciej Jastrzebski

Founded in 2018, Li-Metal’s lithium metal-production process uses available domestic chemical sources that don’t produce toxic byproducts. Its lithium-metal-anode tech means battery-cell makers and car companies can produce advanced batteries with less lithium.

It recently announced a joint development and commercialization agreement with the solid-state-battery producer Blue Solutions.

“I had been searching far and wide across the battery supply chain for cost-effective battery lithium metal, and not only did it not exist but the pathway to get there didn’t exist, and the answers that we were getting from the traditional lithium-metal companies and lithium-chemical companies were truly unsatisfactory,” Dean Frankel, Li-Metal’s chief commercial officer, told Insider in March. “We sit at the bleeding edge of the supply chain.”

Acme Lithium is in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Acme Lithium

HQ: Vancouver, British Columbia

CEO: Steve Hanson

Founded in 2020, Acme focuses on acquiring and developing battery-metal projects in partnership with tech companies and commodity partners. The company is still a few years away from permitting — required before the start of construction and operation — but has two projects in Nevada, one in Oregon, and two in Manitoba. Acme has active exploration programs this year.

“We don’t even have enough lithium supply for one automaker’s battery factory,” Hanson told Insider. “That’s why we’re seeing companies like Tesla and the big Detroit auto manufacturers, including Ford and GM, make significant investments in looking and seeking downstream sources.

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“We’re seeing strategic investors seek future supply at an earlier stage than before. They are making inquiries to companies like ours to understand where they may have supply many years down the road.

“It certainly sends the message that there is a huge concern by the auto manufacturers and by other technology companies: How can we secure supply for the long term?”

Lilac in Oakland, California, uses its technology to tap into reserves of lithium in salt-water deposits.

Lilac Solutions

HQ: Oakland, California

CEO: David Snydacker

In Oakland, California, Lilac focuses on how materials needed for manufacturing EV batteries are mined.

Lilac’s extraction technology taps into reserves of lithium in salt-water deposits. It says its process is more efficient and can be done more ethically and environmentally than many methods in use. The brine containing the lithium can be returned underground following extraction to minimize environmental impact. Lilac’s backers include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, led by Bill Gates, and BMW.

Ascend Elements

HQ: Westborough, Massachusetts

CEO: Mike O’Kronley

The startup, formerly known as Battery Resourcers, was founded in 2015. It manufactures battery materials pulled from discarded batteries, including lithium, and returns them to the battery supply chain. This helps eliminate the industry’s reliance on mining new materials.

It’s working with SK Battery America to recycle lithium-ion-battery manufacturing scrap out of Ascend’s recycling facility in Covington, Georgia, which the company says can recover 98% of materials.

Mangrove Lithium

HQ: Vancouver

CEO: Saad Dara

Spun out from a project at the University of British Columbia and founded in 2017, Mangrove says it’s developing a faster and less expensive way to refine and produce lithium.

“That raw material, we believe, is going to limit how many EVs can actually end up on the road,” Dara told Insider last year.

Mangrove is optimizing the step in between lithium extraction and battery manufacturing, using a processing tech to produce lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide for battery cathodes or anodes. The company wants to license its technology to mining companies, battery makers, and automakers.

Li-Cycle, a company founded in 2016 that recycles lithium-ion batteries, went public via SPAC in August.

Li-Cycle

HQ: Mississauga, Ontario

CEO: Ajay Kochhar

The company, which recycles lithium-ion batteries, was founded in 2016 and went public via special-purpose acquisition company in August. It has facilities in Kingston, Ontario, and Rochester, New York, and plans to build more in Arizona, Alabama, Ohio (via GM’s Ultium Cells), and Norway. A new Rochester hydrometallurgical hub could help it lead in battery-grade nickel, cobalt, and lithium production.

Li-Cycle’s commercial battery-supply customers include Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, General Motors, and Kia. It also has an agreement to recycle battery scrap from LG Energy Solution and supply it and LG Chem with nickel starting next year.

“Consumers have spoken, and they want these vehicles. That’s first and foremost. Hence, OEMs are tailoring to their customers,” Kochhar told Insider in March, referring to original equipment manufacturers. “Zooming out, we can help to alleviate these supply-chain pressure points, and in the long term, this could be the urban mining solution.”

Sigma Lithium, founded in 2012, is working to create the largest hard-rock-lithium deposits in the Americas. Pictured is Ana Cabral-Gardner.

Sigma Lithium

HQ: Vancouver

CEO: Calvyn Gardner and Ana Cabral-Gardner

The Canadian company, founded in 2012, is working to develop the largest hard-rock-lithium deposits in the Americas. It plans to use lithium to boost growth of the EV industry, and it wants to do so by becoming one of the biggest and lowest-cost producers of sustainable lithium products. It is currently under construction, operating out of Brazil, and has been producing lithium concentrate at a demonstration pilot plant since 2018. Sigma Lithium has a contract with LG and hopes to reach net-zero targets by 2024.

“No matter which battery technology one selects, you always have around 17 to 20% lithium in the battery,” Cabral-Gardner told Insider in December. “We need to follow the energy transition with production practices and production techniques that are in line with the decarbonization and sustainability purpose of promoting the energy transition to begin with.”

Lithium Americas, which runs projects in both Argentina and the US, was founded in 2007 and is based in Canada.

Lithium Americas

HQ: Vancouver

CEO: Jonathan Evans

Lithium Americas, which was founded in 2007 and has raised $1 billion in debt and equity, mines, produces, and supplies lithium. It runs projects in both Argentina and the US and is working to develop new sources of lithium, which it says will help meet the growing demand for low-carbon energy sources. In Argentina, it runs the Cauchari-Olaroz project, expected to be the next low-cost brine-lithium-carbonite project in the country, as well as the Pastos Grandes project, which it acquired in December. In the US, it runs the Thacker Pass project in Nevada, which will be developed as an open-pit mining operation.

Standard Lithium

HQ: Vancouver

CEO: Robert Mintak

Standard Lithium, founded in 1998, claims to be bringing the first new US lithium project in more than 50 years into production. Its flagship project is in southern Arkansas, which it says is the largest lithium-brine project in the US. The company is working to test and prove the commercial viability of sustainable lithium extraction from more than 150,000 acres of brine operations. It says its extraction process is environmentally friendly and eliminates the need for evaporation ponds, as well as reduces the processing time to hours and increases the effectiveness of lithium recovery.

Core Lithium in Adelaide, Australia, wants to become Australia’s next major lithium producer by the end of this year.

Core Lithium

HQ: Adelaide, Australia

CEO: Stephen Biggins

Core Lithium, founded in 2010, says it’s developing one of Australia’s most capital-efficient, lowest-cost spodumene-lithium projects. Its goal is to become Australia’s next major lithium producer by the end of this year. Its Finnis Lithium Project is near the Darwin Port in Australia’s Northern Territory, which is the country’s nearest port to Asia. The company says its proximity to the port, as well as the fact that it’s close to grid power, gas, and railways, gives the project an advantage. According to Core’s website, it expects to start production before the end of the year.

Lake Resources in Sydney was founded in 1997 and has four lithium-brine projects in South America’s Lithium Triangle.

Lake Resources

HQ: Sydney

CEO: Stephen Promnitz

Lake Resources is an Australian clean-lithium developer founded in 1997 that is using direct-extraction technology developed by its technology partner, Lilac Solutions, to mine lithium. It has four lithium-brine projects in the Lithium Triangle in South America, which is where 40% of the world’s lithium is produced. Its flagship Kachi project in northern Argentina covers 170,000 acres.

Lake Resources recently signed a preliminary deal with Ford in which the automaker agreed to buy lithium from Lake Resources’ Kachi project, Reuters reported. Ford plans to buy roughly 27,500 tons of lithium from Lake Resources, though the agreement is nonbinding. The Kachi project is expected to be open by 2024, according to Reuters.

Lithium Corp.

HQ: Elko, Nevada

CEO: Tom Lewis

Lithium Corp., founded in 2007, is a mining company in Nevada that’s focused on energy metals for the energy-storage sector. It’s developing two lithium-in-brine prospects in Nevada, as well as a flake-graphite prospect and an early-stage rare-earth-element prospect, both in British Columbia.

On Wednesday, shares of Lithium Corp. more than tripled when a fake press release circulated claiming that Musk’s Tesla had acquired the company, Bloomberg reported. Lithium Corp.’s CEO, Lewis, told Bloomberg he didn’t know where the release came from and that the company had no relationship with Tesla. He added that he would be happy to chat with Musk if he were interested.

EXCLUSIVE Soelect, Lotte Chemical aim to scale up U.S. output of battery components

The logo of Lotte Chemical is seen at its building in Seoul, South Korea, June 7, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
April 26 (Reuters) – Battery startup Soelect and Korean supplier Lotte Chemical (011170.KS) said on Tuesday they intend to invest more than $200 million in a joint venture to make advanced battery components for electric vehicles in the United States.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding to scale up production of Soelect’s LiX lithium metal anodes for next-generation batteries with higher energy density and fast-charging capability.

Inspiration inside a bag of chips: Supercluster looks to advance solid-state batteries in Canada

Blue Solutions’ solid-state batteries are used in electric buses in Paris, France. PHOTO BY ERIC PIERMONT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, or NGen, one of five innovation “superclusters” backed by the federal government, said it will invest $2.39 million in a collaboration between two companies to accelerate development of advanced solid-state batteries.

The money is the latest example of the desire of Canadian policymakers and executives to win a place in the supply chain for electric vehicles. Solid-state batteries hold the potential to be safer and more powerful than lithium-ion batteries, but remain plagued by manufacturing challenges.

NGen’s funding brings together two companies that have quietly been working on solid-state batteries: the Canadian unit of Bolloré Group’s Blue Solutions, based in Boucherville, Que., and Toronto’s Li-Metal Corp., which has devised a new way to produce anodes through recycling.

Li-Metal will receive $1.9 million from NGen while Blue Solutions will receive about $500,000; plus the two companies will match NGen’s grants bringing the total value of the deal above $5 million.

Maciej Jastrzebski, chief executive of Li-Metal, said the money will give his company a chance to test its innovation at an industrial scale.

“Blue Solutions is really the the largest commercial producer of solid-state, lithium batteries, which is what makes this so exciting,” Jastrzebski said in an interview. “They’re producing batteries for buses, grid-storage-type applications, stationary storage applications, and so what makes this partnership so exciting for us is it marries our innovative approach to producing anode materials with their expertise and working with lithium metal in a production context.”

Alain Vallée, head of research and development for Blue Solutions, said his company has sold solid-state batteries since the 1990s, and they are deployed throughout Europe, including most notably in transit buses in Paris.

The batteries are heavier, but far more heat resistant than lithium-ion batteries, so they can sit on the roof of a vehicle without flammability concerns. The problem is the anode. Vallée said Blue Solutions cannot currently produce lithium metal thinner than 20 microns, and they might need it to be two microns. “Reducing the thickness will improve the energy density,” he said.

For years, companies have tried various mechanical means to produce thin lithium metal films that can be used in the anodes, including extruding metal through a narrow slot, and rolling it. But the metal becomes brittle, subject to tears. Meanwhile, valuable scrap is left behind.

Jastrzebski said he and co-founder Tim Johnston, who he met while working at engineering firm Hatch Ltd., started discussing the problem over lunches in 2018.

Johnston founded Li-Cycle Holdings Corp., a lithium-ion battery recycling company, where he was talking with automakers and battery manufacturers, some of whom mentioned the difficulty in obtaining lithium metal films.

They found inspiration for a solution inside a bag of potato chips.

Li-Metal borrowed the process used in potato chip bags. PHOTO BY GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
“When you open a bag of potato chips, or a candy wrapper, it looks shiny,” Jastrzebski said. “That’s just aluminum evaporated onto a plastic substrate. The insight we had was that that’s a way of making something with a thin layer of metal on it, that is cheap enough that you can throw it away.”

So, they borrowed the process used in potato chip bags. They put lithium into a vacuum and boil it. As it vaporizes, they spray it onto a copper substrate.

Jastrzebski said the technology allows Li-Metal to create lithium metal films of only a few microns.

Last year, the company raised $32 million through a reverse takeover on the Canadian Stock Exchange last year, but remains years away from commercializing its products.

Vallée, who has been working on solid-state batteries since he earned a PhD at the University of Montreal as a polymer chemist decades ago, said the technology is exciting because it solves a longstanding problem. Until now, most of the research had been on the cathode side, where the positive charge flows, not the anode, where the negative side flows.

Li-Metal Gets Grant To Advance Lithium Metal Solid-State Batteries

Li-Metal, a Canadian-based company, is developing lithium metal anodes and lithium metal production technologies. The company has a patent-pending production process that replaces lithium chloride as a raw material with lithium carbonate, which is easily available. This lowers the cost of lithium metal production and puts ease on the environmental footprint. The goal is a better lithium metal production process.

Li-Metal was recently awarded $1.9 million (CAD) as part of a $5.1 million (CAD) joint project with Blue Solutions by Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (NGen). NGen has a focus on supporting advanced manufacturing in Canada — this will help Li-Metal develop its lithium metal anode technologies. NGen CEO Jayson Myers shared thoughts about co-investing with Li-Metal and Blue Solutions in a statement.

we want to win business in the globally competitive EV market, Canada must invest in world-leading advanced manufacturing capabilities, in the cleanest, most cutting-edge technologies and processes,” he said.

“That’s why NGen has co-invested with Li-Metal and Blue Solutions in game-changing technologies that will sustainably drive the next generation of EV batteries, resulting in cleaner, more efficient electric vehicles and driving new investment and employment opportunities for businesses across Canada.”

Li-Metal co-founder and CEO Maciej Jastrzebski shared that the grant would help the company’s mission and progress.

“We are excited to receive NGen’s support as we continue to advance the development of lithium metal and anode technology,” Jastrzebski said.

“Ultimately, this grant will help our mission to secure a more sustainable battery materials supply chain for North American next-generation battery makers, significantly advancing Li-Metal’s progress to automotive-grade commercial production.”

Li-Metal will work with Blue Solutions not only to advance the development of the company’s technologies, but also to test the performance of its lithium metal anodes for the automotive market. The proceeds of the grant will support the commercialization of technologies for reprocessing lithium metal and the production of ultra-thin high-performance low-cost lithium metal anodes, the press release noted. This will help Li-Metal to take a key step before next-generation batteries can be used in EVs: supply battery materials and components needed for product qualification.

Here’s how Canada stacks up in the EV battery supply-chain race

Here’s how Canada stacks up in the EV battery supply-chain race batteries, critical minerals, electric vehicles

Canadian governments have been on a spending spree to build a new industry around electric-vehicle batteries from the ground up. LG and Stellantis are together committing $5 billion to a battery plant in Windsor, Ont., while Bécancour, Que., is becoming an automotive hub in its own right, attracting a joint General Motors-POSCO venture and other multinationals as well as industry upstarts like StromVolt. Meanwhile, the country’s critical minerals strategy got up to $3.8 billion in the most recent federal budget.

To provide a look at how the nascent EV battery supply chain industry is developing in Canada, The Logic compiled battery announcements and reports from its archives and interviews over the past year, talked to experts and reviewed the operations of dozens of companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange to find examples of critical mineral miners.

While this methodology doesn’t capture every possible supplier in the country, it gives a glimpse into where Canada most urgently needs to attract investments and talent to build a sustainable industry.

Talking Point

Canada has been pitching its mines-to-mobility strategy and landing deals to build big battery-material plants, from LG to GM. That has opened opportunities for plant suppliers—but is building a complete EV battery in Canada possible? Industry experts say there are still crucial holes that leave them reliant on shipping or importing from China, which dominates the market.

“Strategically, I think the government is actually doing a good job here by bringing in these kinds of anchor investors like GM and POSCO, BASF, Stellantis and LG,” Dan Blondal, CEO of Nano One Materials, told The Logic. “They’ll drive further investment.”

Blondal said that the midstream industry—upgrading raw materials for battery use—could be a key, but often overlooked, area for the country to develop.“In Europe, they’ve launched this whole battery thing, but they’re stuck with adopting a midstream that has got all these inefficiencies. We in Canada have a tremendous opportunity here to set ourselves apart from everywhere else in the world by cleaning that up,” he said.

Here’s a look at key parts of the EV battery supply chain and how Canada stacks up so far:

Battery cells, modules and packs

What it is: Battery cells or pouches go into modules, which are combined to make up battery packs.

Examples of Canadian suppliers: Stellantis-LG is building a $5-billion plant for 2024 production (Ontario, headquartered abroad; cells and modules); StromVolt is spending $200 million to $300 million with plans for initial capacity of 250 megawatt hours, expanding to 10 gigawatt hours by 2030 (Quebec, cell factory in progress using equipment from Taiwan’s Delta Electronics); BritishVolt has made tentative inroads (Quebec, headquartered abroad; cells, cathode and anode plant); Molicel, which says it was North America’s​​ first lithium-ion cellmaker and makes everything from cordless-vacuum to flying-taxi batteries, has an R&D and distribution centre (B.C., headquartered abroad; cells), Electrovaya (Ontario; cells, packs, electrodes, separators); Lion Electric is investing about $185 million for a plant to begin operations in early 2023 (Quebec, packs and modules)

Potential gaps, competition or hurdles: As of the first half of 2021, more than 90 per cent of global EV battery capacity came from seven companies, all in Asia: CATL, LG Energy Solution, Panasonic, Samsung SDI, BYD, SK Innovation and CALB, according to Toronto-based research firm Adamas Intelligence. North American suppliers will have to compete with a well-oiled machine.

“There’s virtually no [lithium iron phosphate] battery production, other than a very small footprint in Quebec, and in North America there’s very little cathode production,” said Blondal.

“There’s a lot of mushiness in the supply chain, particularly in North America, that needs to be resolved. Many components are having to be brought in from overseas, and for us personally, we’re trying to develop it all with a North American, or at least North American-friendly, context.”

Canada will also have to prove its value in the region, with major companies like China’s CATL still shopping for facility locations across the U.S. and Mexico. In a House of Commons committee hearing earlier this year, battery scientist Jeff Dahn told lawmakers that Canada has two small businesses—Electrovaya and Molicel—with a track record of making batteries for manufacturers like Toyota and access to precision machines like electrode coaters and electrolyte filling machines. But Electrovaya’s Strategic Innovation Fund application was rejected by the government in the past year, while Molicel’s took years to be accepted.

“It takes far too long,” Dahn said. “These companies should be encouraged, not discouraged, and in fact even pushed by the federal government to expand in Canada.”

Battery enclosures

What it is: Protects critical battery components from weather and crashes, and houses electrical components and sensors.

Example of Canadian suppliers: Magna (Ontario) is building a 170,000-square-foot facility and hiring 150 people to build battery enclosures in Chatham, Ont., for the Ford F-150 Lightning.

Potential gaps, competition or hurdles: On a February earnings call, Magna CEO Swamy Kotagiri said the company’s enclosures business is a bet that it expects to keep driving growth for years to come. To that end, the company is plowing in cash, even amid rising labour and commodity costs. It also just broke ground on a New Mexico plant that will make inverters, motors and on-board chargers with LG for GM’s EVs.

One analyst asked whether EV makers are planning to outsource more parts, a sweet spot for Magna.

“As we sit here today and look at the cadence of the sourcing activity, we don’t see a significant shift as of yet, but that is to be seen,” said Kotagiri. “If you look at what we have in terms of footprint and capabilities, we should be well positioned to address that piece.”

Equipment

Novonix offers cell-testing services and equipment used by Panasonic, CATL, LG Chemical, SK Innovation and Samsung SDI. Novonix | Twitter

What it is: Elon Musk describes it as the “machine that builds the machine.”

Examples of Canadian suppliers: Tesla, which has two manufacturing facilities and three research and development centres in Canada, is building another facility in Markham, Ont., to manufacture battery-making equipment. Novonix (Nova Scotia) offers cell-testing services and equipment used by Panasonic, CATL, LG Chemical, SK Innovation and Samsung SDI.

The National Research Council of Canada also has equipment hubs, including a pilot-scale battery manufacturing line for prototypes in Boucherville, Que., that has special machines, a battery testing lab in Ottawa used by both regulators and manufacturers, and an R&D group that gives members access to “unique technologies.”

Potential gaps, competition or hurdles: Canada does not make the machinery needed for some types of mineral processing and must import it from countries like China and Japan, according to testimony for the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources summarized in a report last year. This “intermediate” step for materials like graphite or aluminum is a “weak link” in the critical minerals supply chain, experts said.