Imagine finding essential battery materials in a common mineral and reducing atmospheric CO2 as a side benefit. Imagine finding a source of these necessary materials without the need to negotiate with China or enrich those who employ child labor for their wealth. Good News Network (not as Pollyanish as it may sound) featured a picture of a young woman working in a laboratory and the headline, “Chemical Process Produces Critical Battery Metals From This Unloved Mineral With No Waste.”
Often, material other than the sought-for material is the largest amount of stuff removed from a mine. Its worth is usually low because the labor and time involved in extracting any usable minerals is too great for the profits that might be realized. This seems to be changing with a New Zealand firm called Aspiring Materials. Good News took its lead from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which featured Aspiring Materials in its journal, IEEE Spectrum.
That journal described Aspiring Materials’ source material as olivine, a commercially useless rock normally left behind in piles at mine sites. Through some inspired lateral thinking, the folks at Aspiring Materials came up with a chemical process that extracts nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxide, “a component that’s used in high-density lithium ion batteries needed all over the world for electric vehicles, power tools, and energy storage solutions.”
When we see NMC as a primary set of compenents in a lithium battery, we can also see why extracting these materials from what would otherwise end up as gravel is so important.
This all comes about because the two co-founders of the company were intent on finding a way to make resilient structures on Mars. Their research produced something called Marscrete, but also led to a desire to create sustainable materials for earth. That further led to chemical processes that produce, among other things, concrete, magnesium, and battery materials as noted below.
Nickel
commoditypriceapi.com places nickel at $15,405 per ton, an exponsive component in any battery’s makeup.
Manganese
In a rare moment, China seems to be importing this vital mineral, and faces shortages because of the success of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) in the world market. According to Fastmrkets.com, “The inventories [of manganese ore] were almost on a straight downtrend in recent six months, which has been generating robust sentiment among participants, especially supply concerns among buyside contacts,” a manganese ore trader in China said. Regardless of how robust market sentiment is, obtaining manganese from otherwise worthless rock opens a fresh new source of the material.
According to commoditypriceapi.com, manganese was trading at $2,030 per ton on June 25 this year, down significantly from its peak of $2,463 per ton on November 24, so24.
Cobalt
Being able to pull cobalt from olivine could free tens of thousands of school children from the slavery of Congolese cobalt mines. The human benefits are cause enough to embrace Aspiring Materials’ chemical process. It might help reduce the cost of this rare mineral, currently at $33,335 per ton, little of which goes to Congolese child laborers. That Aspiring Materials’ process pulls even one percent of these minerals from olivine rock makes it worth following.
Bill Gates is following it, and has invested in the company.
Environmental Benefits
The firm explains the benefits their humble source material provides in a simple set of declarative sentences.
“Our carbon mineralisation technology captures up to 1 ton of CO2 per 1.3 tons of magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2). It is an efficient and immediate method to capture and store carbon dioxide, especially when compared to other carbon removal or abatement options:
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“48 mature trees growing for 1 year will capture 1 ton of CO2.
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“65 tons of CO2-cured cement will capture 1 ton of CO2.
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“190 tons of rock material used in ‘enhanced weathering’ technologies will capture 1 ton of CO2.
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“Just over 2 tons of olivine rock will capture 1 ton of CO2.”
Aspiring Materials’ Outlook
The company explains its purpose and outlook in its website’s introduction. “High quality, locally manufactured, our clean critical minerals and industrial materials including magnesium, nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxides and silica, ensure a long term, low risk supply you can count on.”
They explain how such materials, processed locally, may help avoid supply chain and even tarrif uncertainties. “Our drop-in, high purity products are exact replacements for imported, carbon-intensive counterparts, so you can derisk and decarbonise your supply chain and move ahead with certainty.”