Blue Gold Mineral For Batteries

Gold once lured prospectors to the american west but now it s cobalt that is sparking a rush.

Blue gold mineral for batteries.

With a target of 500 000 lithium batteries for 500 000 electric cars annually the gigafactory will need 78 000 tons of blue gold per year. Puc a company whose focus is on the jefferson gold project in south carolina wants to expand its presence in the market for key battery metals. The availability of lithium is a well known concern with electric vehicle batteries but much less reported is the concentration of the rare earth minerals vital to making electric motors for evs. Cobalt mining has not happened at any sort of scale in the united states for decades.

Cadmium cobalt lead lithium and nickel along with other rare earth elements. Only has 21 000 metric tons in proved reserves. Venezuela sits on mineral reserves of gold iron ore diamonds coal uranium and the precious mineral coltan. Pyrite s metallic luster and pale brass yellow hue give it a superficial resemblance to gold hence the well known nickname of fool s gold the color has also led to the nicknames brass brazzle and brazil primarily used to refer to pyrite found in coal.

But the mineral best known as a blue pigment has a unique ability to boost battery performance. Canada s pancontinental gold corporation tsxv. And at last count the u s. In 2009 president hugo chávezannounced the discovery of reserves worth 100 billion of the blue gold of the 21st century in the amazon region of the country.

Coltan is venezuela s oro azul or blue gold. Image copyright google image caption batteries for mobile phones led the first cobalt boom in 2008. Minerals and materials used in the construction of batteries are numerous but the core mineral required to have a battery is the batteries chemical which can either be. The tease goes on to emphasize how important this blue gold is to new high tech machinery like the boeing dreamliner and how critical it is to rechargeable batteries of all kinds i think i ve actually read that in the current popular formulations there s actually more cobalt in a lithium battery than in nickel or lead acid.