“The fossil fuel economy is a one-way trip,” says Kurt House, CEO of KoBold Metals. “When we mine new metal for an electric vehicle, we can recycle it 20, 30 times. And eventually we won’t need to mine at all.”
He’s looking for the key minerals — cobalt, copper and nickel — that go into the batteries that can power clean energy technologies, particularly the incoming demand fromThat is why in August he watched as a helicopter flew past with a massive metal detector swinging beneath it, scanning a vast section of this remote Canadian wilderness.
In northern Chile, Wealth Minerals, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, owns rights to a lithium mining claim right between two established, productive lithium mines. The traditional method of extraction is to remove brine containing lithium and let the water evaporate out to then separate the usable metal.“That’s become a little bit of a swear word,” said Henk van Alphen, CEO of Wealth Minerals. “You don’t really evaporate water in one of the driest regions in the world.
House believes they can avoid some of those challenges by exploring only in areas that approve of mining from the start, applying KoBold’s proprietary technology to speed up the discovery process. “The faster you can target, the faster you can fail, and ultimately the more likely you’re going to be successful,” Enders, who is not affiliated with KoBold, said.In January, General Motors rocked the auto industry when it announced the company would sell only zero-emission passenger vehicles by 2035. On its way to electrification, GM has reduced its cobalt use by 70 percent along with other companies that have faced headwinds about the most common source of the mineral.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Bitmain Escalates Bitcoin Mining Arms Race With Most Powerful Hardware In HistoryBitmain's new machine is advertised to be 27% more powerful than the S19 Pro, the current flagship of the S19 series, while being 27% more energy efficient. It is the new standard of bitcoin mining equipment.
Read more »
Bitmain Escalates Bitcoin Mining Arms Race With Most Powerful Hardware In HistoryBitmain's new machine is advertised to be 27% more powerful than the S19 Pro, the current flagship of the S19 series, while being 27% more energy efficient. It is the new standard of bitcoin mining equipment.
Read more »
Bitcoin Mining Noise Drives Neighbors Nuts—a Giant Dentist Drill That Won’t StopCryptocurrency operations require banks of computers and fans to cool them, and the din is making people who live nearby frazzled; a fleet of helicopters in the backyard.
Read more »
Electric Vehicle Startup Rivian Hits $90 Billion Valuation In Biggest IPO Since FacebookRivian’s stock surged nearly 30% on its first day of trading.
Read more »
Billions of dollars in infrastructure bill for charging could supercharge electric vehicle adoptionBillions of dollars earmarked for electric-vehicle charging in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill is expected to boost passenger and commercial EV adoption,...
Read more »
Crypto boom strains Kazakhstan's coal-powered energy gridKazakhstan’s crypto boom is straining its coal-powered energy grid. The Central Asian nation has become the world's second-biggest bitcoin mining location after the United States, according to experts
Read more »