#albemarle-alb

#albemarle-alb

On average, fuel prices are up almost a dollar per gallon, or 25 percent, according to AAA. For a nation as addicted to the automotive as we are, that's bad news. Except, of course, for electric vehicles.

China controls the overwhelming majority of global rare earth processing capacity, a figure that has remained structurally stable for nearly two decades despite sustained Western policy attention. The problem has never been geology. It's always been industrial chemistry at scale.

Korea Zinc, which it described as one of the world's largest smelters, is in talks with major US technology firms to recycle data center waste and extract rare earth. The move comes almost one year to the day after China announced immediate export controls on seven more rare earth elements critical to enterprise IT hardware manufacturing.

LG Energy Solution is converting part of the Lansing factory to produce LFP batteries for energy storage systems. Equipment orders for the new lines have already been placed, and mass production is reportedly expected to begin in the second half of next year.

The team, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Institute of Technology, recently published their findings in Nature Communications. According to their research, the process not only avoids conventional leaching chemicals and extreme heat to extract lithium from old batteries, but it also uses carbon dioxide in what the authors call a sequestration step, and turns other battery transition metals into new catalysts - with CO₂-rich water doing most of the chemical work.

Demand for lithium is fueling a modern-day gold rush. The industries that define our modern world, like artifiial intelligence (AI), robotics, EVs, and energy, all depend on lithium, which is used to make batteries and other energy storage systems. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella believes that the AI race will be won based on energy costs, not on who has the best models.That's why lithium demand is projected to grow a staggering 5X by 2040.

United States President Donald Trump has announced the launch of a strategic minerals stockpile. The stockpile, called Project Vault, was announced on Monday. It will combine $2bn of private capital with a $10bn loan from the US Export-Import Bank. list of 4 itemsend of list It is the latest move by the White House to invest in rare-earth minerals needed in the production of key goods, including semiconductor chips, smartphones and electric car batteries.

The Tesla CEO argued that too many companies are underestimating their exposure to geopolitical risks posed by fragile supply chains, particularly for critical materials used in electric vehicles and energy storage. "There are so many companies out there that are asleep at the switch with regard to geopolitical risk - or they just have their head in the sand and hope nothing bad will happen," Musk said. "I'm way more paranoid than that."

The first sites are expected to open later this Summer, and will be built at select locations along I-5 and I-10, major routes for commercial vehicles and significant logistics companies. The chargers will be available in California, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Each station will have between four and eight chargers, delivering up to 1.2 megawatts of power at each stall.