Raw materials are key for the climate transition. Electric vehicles, for example, require cobalt, nickel, lithium, and manganese for their batteries and platinum for fuel cells.
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The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act came into force on 23 May, marking the bloc’s largest attempt to secure its own source of materials needed for the green transition.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Queensland Premier Steven Miles (right, in red).
Brian Cassey/AAP
Two major critical minerals projects in Queensland and South Australia will receive $400 million in federal government loans to to deliver Australia’s first high-purity alumina processing facility.
China’s two largest EV battery makers are pledging to slash the cost of their batteries this year. Behind the pledge is a cost war – and new battery chemistries.
Why do batteries lose charge more quickly when it’s cold?
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Electric vehicles are catching on across the US, but they’re also catching on fire in colder regions like the Northeast and Midwest.
An aerial view of pools of brine that slowly evaporate, leaving behind lithium and other minerals, in the SQM mine in the San Pedro de Atacama desert, in northern Chile, on April 18, 2023.
(AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The temptation to justify critical minerals mining at all costs is a dangerous fallacy. The social and environmental impacts of poorly mined critical minerals are dire.
Aerial view of the Pinto Valley copper mine, located on private and U.S. national forest lands in Gila County, Ariz.
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Hard rock minerals like gold, silver, copper and lithium on public lands belong to the American public, but under a 150-year-old law, the US gives them away for free.
In this podcast, senior fellow from the Lowy Institute and expert on Asia Richard McGregor joins The Conversation to canvass the prime minister's coming trip to China.
Long the industry standard, lithium-ion batteries come with considerable drawbacks that limit their widescale adoption as the grid-energy storage medium of choice.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Psychiatrists rely on guidelines to prescribe medication for bipolar disorders. But beyond side-effects and clinical trials, ‘real-world’ effectiveness should be considered thoughtfully.
Nebuchadnezzar – William Blake (c.1805). Tate Britain.
Humans have attempted to understand and treat mental illness for centuries – from ancient Greek medicine, Middle Ages exorcisms and the rise of asylums, to modern medical breakthroughs.
Lithium, essential for EV batteries, could be South America’s white gold.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
China is a major investor in Latin America’s renewable energy and critical minerals like lithium, but countries like Chile are also taking steps to secure their own clean energy future.
A farmer walks on a marshy shore of a river polluted by oil spills in Nigeria’s Niger delta, region.
Pius Utomi Ekpei/ AFP
Energy firms are likely to lie about their corporate social responsibility to the environment. Their deception can be turned around for good if they are held accountable.
The enhanced partnership could accelerate Australia’s transition from fossil fuel exporter to clean energy powerhouse. But success is far from assured.
South Africans are taking their power supply into their own hands with backup systems that don’t rely on power utility Eskom.
Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
China controls much of the global EV supply chain, but electric vehicles that use its parts and minerals won’t qualify for new US EV tax credits. Can America build its own supply chain?
A truck carries lithium carbonate at a lithium mine in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
Photographer: Cristobal Olivares/Bloomberg via Getty Images