Andyrooo, it was a brilliant interview, but I guess I should of...

Andyrooo, it was a brilliant interview, but I guess I should of warned there might be some confirmation bias included, given it was the BMI Africa conference, which we all know is economically dependent on copper and cobalt exports.

Though, I tend to agree with Robert, cobalt will still be a key component of e-mobility batteries for some time.

Everyone that doesn't have a focus on Lithium will tell you it is abundant, which it is, but it needs to be economically viable to extract. Once again, confirmation bias, because everyone is fighting over that pool of finance dollars for "their" project(s). Lithium is a small component of Lithium-ion batteries, but it is the essential component, whichever battery chem iteration comes along, and for some time from my perspective.

According to Sila Nanotechnologies, nickel will disappear from batteries, "eventually", and given it takes at best, 7 years to develop an economic nickel project, are miners going to throw billions at projects, then find demand falls off a cliff. Its okay for existing producing projects, but maybe a gamble for those projects under development, hence the Hoover Dam & garden hose analogy.

From what I am reading, LFP batteries will maintain a strong presence, and doesn't China suffer a little bit from confirmation bias too, given their supply chain has been built and relied heavily on carbonate based products (i.e. legacy producers). My view, high nickel cathodes will gradually eat into LFP market share, but the current nickel content seems to be already approaching its limit, so cobalt will remain IMO, well until a commercial replacement comes along. So when does that replacement come along, who knows, particularly when one takes off the blinkers and considers the level of $$ already and being invested in high nickel cell production tech. Elon, miners please mine more clean nickel, and LG Chem and GM team up to build cell production, focusing on NCM722 cell lines.

I was a bit shocked when Robert stated the Indonesian experiment wouldn't work, but once again, this was an Africa focused conference.

Over the years I have heard many analyst state that recycling lithium would not be viable. It it was viable, Robert said there wont be enough batteries to recycle for quite some time, and according to BMI, recycled lithium will only account for ~10% of supply. I hope the EU has a Plan B, given their rhetoric on the built out of their circular battery economy.

I wont comment on his politics, they are his own, and leasing the battery seems viable to me. Leasing a battery would allow peeps to match the battery chems to their particular needs, choose a cheaper LFP battery if you are city dweller, an NCM variant for country folk, and same in the commercial vehicle space, lease the battery that best suits your needs, etc.

From my perspective (confirmation bias), there is a lot of noise surrounding "potentially" different battery chems, therefore I will focus on the essential battery metal, which is expected to be an essential component for the next iteration of batteries, (i.e. solid state, once commercially viable). Having said that, the chemistry in the solid state battery cathode may not change all that much, but the anode will.