Good Monday Morning!
In the news today and from the weekend…
Minerals:
- Duluth News Tribune reports the White House recently announced that President Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to “support production and processing of minerals and materials used for large-capacity batteries” as part of a plan to accelerate the creation of a domestic supply chain for electric vehicle manufacturing, and Maine is a site for lithium.
- Utility Dive reports Tesla is placing an emphasis on diversifying battery chemistries, and nearly half of the vehicles it produced in the first quarter had lithium iron phosphate batteries, which contain no nickel or cobalt.
- Washington Examiner reports analysts and auto industry leaders are keeping the pressure on to help improve the critical mineral supply chain landscape, warning it’s so vastly underdeveloped that it will be a major check on countries’ intentions to more quickly replace fuel powered vehicles with electric ones.