Tiny but vital metal markets rush to adjust to Chinese clampdown
A bigger clampdown looks set to have far-reaching ramifications for supply chains feeding American defense and chip-making industries.
Nickel extraction technology company Atlas Materials has signed of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with 6K Energy, producer of Li-ion battery materials, to jointly explore processing and refining opportunities to support an integrated North American EV battery supply chain.
Atlas, which has developed a waste-free technology to process low-grade nickel for use in electric vehicle batteries, last year raised $27 million for its technology and said it aims to launch production at sites in Canada or the US by 2027 at commercial scale.
Atlas’ technology uses hydrochloric acid and caustic soda to leach the ore but, unlike some other methods, does not need high pressure or high temperatures and does not result in waste products or other emissions while increasing the amount of ore available for batteries by 50%, the company said.
Until now, saprolite ores, which account for approximately one-third of the world’s nickel resources, could not be processed into battery grade applications economically, which is what the Atlas process is targeting.
6K Energy said its UniMelt production system is able to deliver multiple IRA compliant Li-ion materials, including nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium ferrophosphate (LFP) battery cathode active materials (CAM), with strong specification performance meeting or exceeding industry requirements.
The company added that its LFP CAM is achieving over 160mh/gm capacity with exceptional efficiency, trending to 6,000-plus cycles while maintaining 80% capacity, while its single-crystal NMC811 is demonstrating performance trending to 3,000-plus cycles to 80% state of health.
According to 6K Energy, it delivers both NMC and LFP at a significantly lower cost than Chinese suppliers – backed by lower energy consumption and as much as 65% lower carbon footprint.
As outlined in the MOU, Atlas will continue to focus on the North American production by deploying its low-carbon process to produce mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) from its established access to nickel laterite sources. 6K Energy will focus on converting nickel salts to CAM with its propriety microwave-generated plasma in a closed-loop production process.
The joint work will provide the lowest carbon footprint impact in conjunction with a market leading solution for EVs and the automotive industry as a whole, the companies said.
