Last week BMW, Volvo Group, Samsung SDI and Google signed on to a World Wildlife Fund call for a moratorium on the practice.

Eramet's board unanimously agreed to propose that Christel Bories be renewed for a second four-year term.

Its roadmap has major implications for battery metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese.

The US government is working to help American miners and battery makers expand into Canada, part of a strategy to boost regional production of minerals used to make electric vehicles and counter Chinese dominance.

No. 1 is a deep sea polymetallic project with a 75,000 square kilometre exploration tenement.

Company is stepping up its game to become the world’s biggest electric-car maker with a plan to build six battery factories in Europe.