This presentation will explore the critical role of mine planning in shaping environmental outcomes that affect miners, battery manufacturers, and end users. The discussion will focus on the importance of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in quantifying environmental impacts across the value chain. Additionally, it will cover best practices for interpreting these impacts and effectively communicating them to stakeholders across the battery supply chain.

A discussion on how the "Nevada Tech Hub" is seeking to create a self-contained supply chain across Nevada's emerging lithium batteries, critical elements, and other EV materials industry sector, from extraction to processing to advanced manufacturing to recycling, through targeted business creation and expansion efforts and through strategic collaborations to meet the nation's national security, climate mitigation, and economic diversification needs and goals.

The number of ESG-related regulations impacting global battery supply chains has increased substantially over the past decade. With growing scrutiny from mine to metal, companies are now increasingly exposed to the risks of regulatory non-compliance, which can take several forms: from penalties associated with incorrect reporting, to activist NGOs holding corporations to account and downstream stakeholders being held responsible for incidents at the upstream level.

Nevada is a leader in the global lithium supply chain. Mining is a critical part of Nevada's place in this supply chain, and our industry has benefited from the state's long history in exploration and mining projects. This talk will cover commercialization, local supply of raw materials, and collaboration facilitated by the Nevada Battery Coalition that is driving development and cooperation.

Establishing a battery supply chain in North America will require the development of many technologies, including lithium extraction, nickel sulfate refining, and pCAM refining. In particular, "battery grade" often requires a high level of quality and is frequently a barrier to mass production. This presentation will discuss approaches and solutions for achieving this goal.

Salton Sea geothermal geothermal brines are capable of producing at a minimum the following metals at 90% recovery efficiency:

Metal    ppm      Rate 

Mn        1500      162,000 tpy 

Li            198        21,384 tpy 

Zn          500        54,000 tpy 

Challenges to producing these geothermal metals include: finding extraction media (substrates and adsorbents) that can withstand the high salinities, temperatures, and corrosive pH values; keeping the flashed brine hot and thus free of Si-Fe precipitates that can clog extraction media and injection wells; scaling-up direct lithium extraction technologies to extremely high brine flow rates; and reducing water consumption in the drought-stricken Colorado River basin.

The Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge project, located in Esmeralda County, Nevada, is a greenfield mine and production facility aiming to produce technical grades lithium carbonate and boric acid from a sedimentary deposit. Vat leaching technique will be used to extract lithium and boron using sulfuric acid as the leaching agent. The two elements will be refined through various purification processes such chemical precipitation, evaporation, and crystallization. Heat and electricity will be provided by an onsite sulfuric acid plant, thus, eliminating the need for grid connection. The presentation will overview the project's flowsheet and development decisions, which focused on minimizing environmental impact. 

Lithium is an essential element in the global energy transition. It's critically important to stakeholders that it is mined in a sustainable and equitable way. The presentation will look at the global lithium market and update SQM's progress on its sustainable development plan. It will highlight the crucial role innovation plays in reducing footprint and driving expansions to meet future demand in a responsible way.

Electrochemical refining of raw lithium is a flexible and scalable approach to produce high-purity, battery-grade lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate. Suitable feedstocks include brines, hard rocks, clays, DLE, and battery recycling. Modular electrochemical conversion technology can co-locate near the point of extraction, battery recycling, or battery manufacturing, removing supply risks and reliance on foreign supplies. Commercial demonstration plant performance results will be presented.

To achieve net zero emission goals there is a growing need for large quantities of critical metals like nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese. Impossible Metals has invented new technology which preserves and protects the marine habitat, while also reducing the cost of extraction.

Nickel saprolite ores typically contain 1.5-2% Ni with <0.1% Co and are processed using pyrometallurgical techniques. The existing processes are energy-intensive and produce large amounts of slag and carbon dioxide emissions. The Atlas Materials Process extracts nickel, cobalt, magnesium, and other elements to produce a nickel/cobalt-containing mixed hydroxide precipitate for battery chemical manufacture, a silica residue for cement making and a variety of magnesium product streams.

With the surge of electric vehicles (EVs), high capacity, high energy density materials are essential to fulfill long-distance travel. Ni-rich cathodes are dominant owing to their high energy density and good rate capability. Batteries are the fastest growing market for nickel, and the Nickel Institute (NI) is quite active in this space. This presentation provides an overview of the NI Battery Program followed by the current global EV market and the share of nickel-based battery chemistries. Furthermore, a discussion on the patent landscape and the latest technology developments is included.