Independent thinking for complex markets and current events
Researchers at Columbia Engineering just dropped a massive breakthrough: a new, fast technique to pull lithium for EV batteries… This method could finally solve one of the dirtiest, slowest problems currently stalling the green energy transition… The process is significantly cleaner than the traditional evaporation ponds that have been poisoning local water tables for decades… …
Quantum breakthrough as battery charges almost instantly… Australian researchers have unveiled a working quantum battery, it uses “super-absorption” to charge in seconds… The device defies traditional thermodynamics, the more units you add, the faster the charging process becomes… Tech giants are already circling the patent, this could end the “lithium bottleneck” for the next generation …
In a new book, Nicolas Niarchos traces the mineral supply chain for lithium-ion batteries, exposing their considerable human and environmental costs. No object is marketed with a greater sense of messianic promise than the electric vehicle. Here, we are told, is the corrective to centuries of environmental catastrophe as the price of material gain. Here …
New Generation Of Industries Emerges In Texas As Rare Earths Race Ignites https://t.co/smU839P6Om — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 21, 2025 Major oil companies are drilling in East Texas again, but not for oil. This time, they’re after lithium for batteries and other rare elements. Chevron and Halliburton announced East Texas projects this summer. Exxon has acreage …
US Government Takes 10% Stake In Lithium Americas https://t.co/D3DyeTE1pR — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 1, 2025 Trump’s Industrial Economy policies just took down their latest scalp, so to speak. One week after Bloomberg reported that the White House was considering a 10% stake in one of the largest North American lithium mining companies, Lithium Americas, on …
Studies in rodents and humans suggest that low levels of the metal contribute to cognitive decline. Replenishing the brain’s natural stores of lithium can protect against and even reverse Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a paper published1 today in Nature. The paper reports that analyses of human brain tissue and a series of mouse experiments point to …
"Effective Immediately": Shipping Line Suspends EV Cargo Due To Lithium Battery Fire Concerns https://t.co/GyGrsL32Zu — zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 21, 2025 U.S. shipping and navigation services company Matson surprised customers in recent days by announcing new policies that halt all electric vehicle shipments due to the fire risk posed by lithium-ion batteries. This comes after the Morning …
Russia’s summer offensive in Donetsk just punched a hole through Ukraine’s mineral strategy. In late June 2025, Russian forces seized the Shevchenko lithium deposit, a 40-hectare site near the village of the same name. That patch of ground holds one of Europe’s richest spodumene concentrations, with ore containing up to 90% lithium-bearing mineral. The deposit …
The United States just hit the lithium jackpot. Twice. Not one but two of the largest lithium deposits in the world have been found within its borders. This isn’t just a geological windfall. It is a geopolitical shift, and the timing could not be more strategic. Tucked between Oregon and Nevada, the McDermitt Caldera is …
Jordan Chariton interviewed Sil Caggiano, a Hazardous Waste Expert and former Battalion Chief of the Youngstown Fire Department, about the Moss Landing California Lithium battery plant fire that has sickened local residents and potentially threatened local vegetable crops that serve 70% of America. Caggiano explains why the EPA’s assurances to the public of no health …
Arkansas is sitting on a $150 billion ‘hidden treasure’ trove of lithium that could meet the global demand for EV batteries by 2030. The US Geological Survey (USGS) found between five and 19 million tons of lithium in the Smackover Formation, which is nine times the amount needed to meet the ongoing electric vehicle demand …
The number of batteries involved were equivalent to 5 Tesla cars. “1 or 2 breaths of the smoke would render a person unconscious.” “The area filled with smoke within 15 seconds of the first battery bursting into flames” 35,000 cells 1 Tesla = 7,000 cells. They do have fire extinguishers for Lithium now. At least …
What was once celebrated as a transformative project for South Carolina’s electric vehicle (EV) industry has encountered a significant setback, signaling challenges for the broader EV sector. Albemarle, the world’s most valuable lithium company, had ambitious plans for a $1.3 billion lithium processing plant in South Carolina, designed to support the state’s growing EV industry. …
via oilprice: Chile’s SQM has announced that it has suspended operations at the Atacama salt flat due to widespread protests by an indigenous community. Local groups have taken to the streets demanding to be included in talks between SQM and the government. Some Indigenous leaders are open to supporting lithium extraction at a fair price. Chile’s lithium …
A large cargo ship with a fire in its hold is being kept 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) offshore of an Alaska port as a precaution while efforts are undertaken to extinguish the flames, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday. There were no injuries to the 19 crew members aboard the Genius Star XI, which was carrying a …
Price dropped from $84,500 to 18,000 / metric ton in the last year. And the courts have just ruled that Ford was illegally forcing its dealers to sell E cars. People aren’t buying them, and nobody wants to sell them. h/t JustmeTX
Geologists have uncovered what they believe could be the world’s largest lithium deposit inside an ancient supervolcano along the Nevada-Oregon border in the US. Clay containing up to 40 million metric tons of the precious metal was identified throughout the 28-mile-long McDermitt Caldera – nearly double what has been found in Bolivia’s salt flats that …