The United States has updated the list of key minerals, adding new minerals such as nickel and zinc.
According to the U.S. Energy Act of 2020, “critical minerals” are non-fuel minerals or mineral materials that are critical to the U.S. economy or national security and that have vulnerable supply chains and play an important role in the manufacture of products.
On February 22, the official website of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) released a new list of 50 critical mineral commodities essential to the U.S. economy and national security.
Compared to the first U.S. critical minerals list created in 2018, the new list removes helium, potassium, rhenium and strontium, and adds 15 additional mineral commodities.
Most of the new additions are due to the splitting of rare earth elements and platinum group elements into separate items; nickel and zinc are listed for the first time.
“Mineral criticality is not static and changes over time,” said Steven M. Fortier, director of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Mineral Information Center. “We are constantly analyzing the mineral market and developing new methods to identify supply chain risks for various critical minerals. .”
The release of the 2022 list of critical minerals will provide guidance to the USGS and other agencies on the use of funds from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment Act.
The final consumption of nickel is concentrated in industries such as stainless steel, batteries, electroplating, and alloys.
Nearly two-thirds of the primary consumption of zinc is used as a coating on the surface of steel and steel structures, as well as as a negative electrode and container for batteries, and as an industrial additive. The terminal applications of zinc are relatively scattered, mainly used in industries such as infrastructure, real estate, transportation and home appliances.
Since the beginning of this year, nickel prices have continued to rise sharply. As of February 23, Shanghai nickel closed at 175,300 yuan / ton, an increase of about 15% compared with 152,600 yuan / ton at the beginning of the year; Shanghai zinc main contract closed at 25,100 yuan / ton, at a high level.
On February 22, the London nickel price rose above US$25,000/ton, a new high since 2011; as of the close on the 23rd, London nickel closed at US$24,500/ton.
On the day the list was released, the Biden administration issued a statement saying: “Key minerals provide the foundation for many modern technologies and are vital to national security and economic prosperity.”
For example, rare earth elements, lithium and cobalt, are used in computers, household appliances, and are also key materials for clean energy technologies such as batteries, electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.
Biden said that as the world transitions to a clean energy economy, the global demand for these key minerals will soar 4-6 times in the next few decades, and the demand for minerals such as lithium and graphite used in electric vehicle batteries will even increase by as much as 40 times. .
The Biden administration has announced major investments in U.S. production of critical minerals and materials, including projects at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. The company announced that in the spring of 2022, it will officially build a new demonstration facility in Imperial Valley, California, to verify the commercial viability of geothermal salt lake lithium extraction technology. It’s part of a multi-billion dollar project.
Berkshire Hathaway said in a statement that the Valley of the Kings has the world’s largest lithium deposits. Once on a commercial scale, the company could produce 90,000 metric tons of lithium a year.
In addition, Redwood Materials, an American developer of raw material recycling technology, will cooperate with Ford and Volvo to plan to recycle waste lithium-ion batteries to extract lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite.
According to the latest announcement, Redwood Materials will form a joint venture with Ford to establish a lithium-ion battery recycling project in Tennessee, and plans to build a cathode materials project in Nevada within the year.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released the report “The Role of Key Minerals in Clean Energy Transition” released in May last year, pointing out that in the process of transition to clean energy, key minerals bring new challenges to energy security.
Solar photovoltaic power plants, wind farms and electric vehicles generally require more minerals than their fossil fuel-based counterparts. For example, a typical electric car requires six times the mineral resources of a conventional car; an onshore wind farm requires nine times the mineral resources of a gas-fired power plant.
The IEA said that since 2010, as the share of investment in renewable energy has risen, the average amount of minerals required per kilowatt-hour of electricity generation has increased by 50%.
Taking into account climate drivers, demand for minerals for electric vehicles and battery storage will be the main force, growing at least 30-fold by 2040, the IEA said. Among them, lithium has the fastest growth, and the demand growth rate may exceed 40 times, followed by graphite, cobalt and nickel, which are about 20-25 times.
The IEA report points to the growing importance of minerals in decarbonizing energy systems, requiring energy policymakers to broaden their horizons and consider potential new loopholes.
Post time: Feb-24-2022