Megafactories buildout could up nickel demand inbatteries 19...

Megafactories buildout could up nickel demand inbatteries 19 fold (Mining.com)

It was encouraging for miners when Simon Moores,managing director, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, testified before the U.S.Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Tuesday. Moores wassummoned by the Senate Committee to testify on the lithium, cobalt, nickel andgraphite supply chains for energy storage.

"Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is nowtracking 70 lithium ion battery megafactories under construction across fourcontinents, 46 of which are based in China with only five currently planned forthe US. When I gave my last testimony in October 2017, the global total was at17," Moores said.

Moores said that these megafactories are beingbuilt almost exclusively to make lithium ion battery cells using twochemistries: nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) and nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA).“This means the supply of lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese to produce thecathode for these cells, alongside graphite to produce battery anodes, needs torapidly evolve for the 21st century," Moores testified.

Moores presented a chart based on the assumptionthat all of these megafactories are built and run at 100% capacity utilization."Under this scenario, lithium demand will increase by over eight times,graphite anode by over seven times, nickel by a massive 19 times, and cobaltdemand will rise four-fold, which takes into account the industry trend ofreducing cobalt usage in a battery," Moores testified.