Battery minerals

Energy linked to 21^ST Century knowledge (Battery Minerals)

The history of energy creation, generation and use is the history of human evolution, travel, trade and knowledge dissemination. The increase in human knowledge over the past 250 years coupled with the advent of ways to store and use energy locally has led to virtually exponential knowledge growth in the 21st Century. The extraction of minerals suitable for batteries that can store energy from renewable and non renewable sources is fundamental to the technological age in the 21st century.

From the change from charcoal to coal, whale oil to crude oil, the adaption of alternating rather than direct current to power our cities to the current change in energy generation from multiple sources the human race has sought to improve its standard of living and on hand knowledge to advance civilizations and to explore distant lands and planets.

Climate Change and the Energy mix

Currently the proposed energy mix using the Australian Government’s concept of energy security addresses a mix of ‘non-renewable’ (coal, conventional and non-conventional gas, oil, oil shale, nuclear, and ‘renewable’ energy (wind, hydro, solar, bio fuels, geothermal). To achieve this mix necessitates adoption of new technologies and ongoing research in methods of energy generation and storage. The touted renewable energy market mix such still requires the discovery, mining and processing of minerals to create the raw materials for battery manufacture and storage of electricity.

The goal is to create consistent energy to power critical infrastructure and if this is not forthcoming creates a situation of urban chaos and loss of revenue and in the short term and possible revolution if the situation is not remedied. Currently there is a necessity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stabilise climate variations globally. This goal has spawned ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ energy to be added to the energy production mix. This trend to renewable energy has been championed globally by governments through subsidies to creating an ongoing more livable urban environments in our growing mega-cities.

The change from total dependence on non-renewable energy sources such as coal and nuclear power has been driven by global debate on climate change and greenhouse gases and the growing pollution and issue of global climate change. There has been a significant cost to the community with rapidly escalating energy prices particularly in areas where there is an almost total reliance on renewable energy such as South Australia. The important considerations of any major new energy source are:

That the renewables sources must create a net improvement in carbon dioxide levels. The energy input to create renewable energy sources must be less than the energy outputs over the life cycle of each renewable energy source.
That renewable source must generate energy for continuous system operation by delivering 24/7/365 power to keep modern economies buoyant. This has been supplied by major electricity grids in developed countries across the globe using coal, natural gas and nuclear.
Linking of energy produced by renewables (e.g., Solar panels and wind) into the major grid requires effective battery storage systems when the sun doesn’t shine and wind doesn’t blow.
The rapid change in personal use of energy is linked to development and deployment of personal, electronic, battery- operated devices, e.g. mobile phones, computers, GPS systems that use batteries at locations remote from grid power. what are the ongoing pollution issues caused by the creation of the energy source?
How long does the energy source continue to operate?
As renewable energy sources such as wind and solar do not produce power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind is ineffective a battery storage system is essential to deliver 24/7/365 energy availability

As renewable energy sources such as wind and solar do not produce power when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind is ineffective a battery storage system is essential to deliver 24/7/365 energy availability

Energy Storage and use through Lithium and other minerals

The site on types of minerals processed for use in modern battery technology is instructive in this space. Rechargeable batteries having a high energy density with multiple recharging for long-term storage is the key. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the main technology utilized in batteries used for most hand-held devices such as mobile phones and personal computers due to the high levels of energy stored. Variants of Lithium-ion batteries are used currently in the rapidly expanding electric vehicle (EV) industry.

The site which outlines the properties of lithium-ion batteries related to their safety of use and issues of long term storage, discharge and charging identifies combinations of chemistry that are relevant to different industrial applications.

Types of Lithium-Ion batteries and their use

Lithium Cobalt Oxide: has the highest energy density of current in lithium batteries. Cobalt has a high energy density, but is an expensive metal that displays thermal instability (unsafe) and fast capacity fade (short life) as a cathode material.

Lithium Manganese Oxide: in this battery, the use of manganese in place of cobalt allows for higher power density and greater thermal stability when compared to Lithium Cobalt Oxide.

Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide: Nickel, manganese and cobalt oxide improves cathode lifespan. Combining all three results in good performance across all metrics (energy density, power density, lifespan, and thermal stability

Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminum Oxide: These batteries have high power and energy densities, and long shelf life, but degrade more quickly with use than Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide cells. The increased cobalt content improves energy and power density, but also makes cells more expensive and less thermally stable.

Lithium Iron Phosphate: Have high thermal stability, long lifespan, cheap cathode materials and are obvious choice for use as stationary storage.

Lithium Titanate nanocrystals here form the anode, and these batteries display unparalleled thermal stability / lifespan. They are expensive when assessed on the basis of energy storage capacity ($/kWh).

Uses

Portable electronic devices such as mobile phones. The battery characteristics, combined with a low power density, rank other lithium-ion batteries for EV and stationary storage applications

This battery was once the choice for EV manufacturers However, with a shorter lifetime, and lower energy density they are considered less suitable for EVs than Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide batteries

Nickel Manganes Cobalt batteries are applicable across many applications, particularly EV’s

Competes with Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide for market share in EV power trains.

Due to their low energy density they are unsuited to EV’s, and manufacturing volumes have not yet reached the point where system costs reflect the low materials costs.

Their capacity to deliver energy over an extremely short period makes them competitive in high power applications. Low energy density makes them unsuited to EV’s, Project applications include grid frequency regulation and Photovoltaic cells associated with wind farm smoothing

For stationary storage on-grid and off-grid solar storage, Lithium Iron Phosphate and Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide batteries are market leaders. The majority of rest remain with incumbent sealed lead-acid batteries however, and the following parameters should be considered when comparing the two technologies.

Non-rechargeable) lithium batteries possess toxic metallic lithium; however the components of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are much more stable, but require recycling when recharging is not effective. Unfortunately recycling of lithium-ion batteries is mostly non-existent and these are commonly disposed in waste dumps and this is an issue to be solved when these batteries reach the end of their life cycle. The creation of large-format lithium-ion batteries in an expanding Electric Vehicles (EV) market and for stationary point storage (eg Tesla Powerwall) will require expansion of recycling options possibly at the origin location of the mega factories that originally produced the batteries. As a contrast disposal and recycling of lead-acid batteries are much more advanced due to their long residence in the marketplace.

Lithium- ion batteries generate considerable heat when being recharged. Thermal runaway is a term that refers to a positive feedback loop that can cause battery swelling, fire and explosion. This occurs due to the catalytic effect of heat released during battery malfunction accelerates the irregular reactions causing the release of excessive heat.

Lithium-ion cells have a high density of energy and this combined with the reactivity of lithium, the flammability of the organic solvent electrolyte, thermal runaway can be more dangerous than in lead-acid battery cells. Without protection systems in place, the likelihood also tends to be greater and this has occurred in some personal mobile phones. An exception to this is the thermally-stable LTO batteries.

Practically, manufacture of lithium-ion batteries include systems and safety measures that isolate battery packs when there are conditions of over/under-voltage or over/under-temperature, Cell balancing systems that equalise the standard operating current of battery cells connected in series, to avoid over/under-voltage conditions such as:

Battery fusing to arrest short-circuit currents
Thermal management systems to carry heat away from cells via air or liquid cooling

The widespread use of lithium-ion batteries in EV’s is indicative of the effectiveness of these protection systems. In stationary applications, where temperatures are lower and more stable, the likelihood of thermal runaway is reduced even further. There has been little or no consideration of how to effectively recycle waster products from Li-ion batteries when these reach the end of their effective life cycle.

Countries supplying minerals for batteries

The supply of material for Lithium -ion batteries comes from the sources of the major components of the batteries – lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite and these are distributed unevenly in different jurisdictions.

Lithium

Lithium sources include hard rock mines in particular lithium pegmatites containing spodumene and lithium-rich brines. The largest global producer of lithium is the Greenbushes Mine in Western Australia that produces lithium from hard rock pegmatite deposits containing spodumene. The rest of the production is sources from Li-rich brines in South America mainly from salt lakes in Argentina and Chile.

Cobalt

Most cobalt is sourced as a by-product of Nickel mining, with the largest producer of cobalt is the Democratic republic of Congo which is a politically unstable region that uses child labour.

Nickel

The Phillipines was the major producer of global nickel in 2016 but by restricting of access to these deposits Indonesia has become the top nickel producing country, followed by the Philippines. Reserves of the metal are estimated at 94 million tonnes globally, with Indonesia and Australia among the countries holding the world’s largest nickel reserves Australia is also a significant producer mainly at this stage from nickel sulphides, but there is current development opportunities in Nickel laterites. that have higher grades than the nickel sulphide deposits and form surficial deposits with low or zero strip ratios.

Ni-Co Laterites

Increasingly the Extraction of Nickel and Cobalt is linked to technology studies into extracting this material from Nickel-cobalt (+scandium) contained in laterite deposits overlying basic igneous intrusions that occur mainly within the tropics. The technology to extract Nickel and Cobalt in the higher grade Nickel-Cobalt laterite deposits in undergoing a transition to attempt to achive higher recoveries form existing deposits.

Nickel

The Phillipines is the major producer of global nickel and there has recently been restricting access to these deposits. Australia is also a significant producer mainly at this stage from nickel sulphides, but there is current development opportunities in Nickel laterites.

The United States geological Survey (USGS) has created a Global Resource Model of Lateritic Ni-Co deposits. Analyses of how these laterites respond toheap leachhas been studied. The cobalt grade in ores was related to the abundance of Mn-oxide phases, but the percentage of Co extracted during leaching did not correlate strongly with the abundance of any particular mineral phases. Ores with high Ni grades (1.4–2.1 wt%) contained mainly smectite or chlorite, with low abundances of goethite and a variety of poorly crystalline phases.

Based on the USGS modelling there appears to be a close association of clay and oxide mineral species with grades of Ni and Co in laterite deposits. Use of this knowledge may suggest an exploration and processing method which may use some of the ideas below.

From the drilling of Ni-Co laterite and the zoning and update the model for your deposit as required
Undertake testing of clay and oxide species using the SWIR and Thermal IR using the hylogger available at government geological surveys in Australia and compare these species against existing analyses of Ni and Co grades. From the examples of the different Ni-Co laterite ores it appears that specific mixes of clays, oxides and carbonates give consistent grades. Hylogger with the SWIR and longer thermal TIR bands will give good correlation of mixes of these minerals that can be compared against the analysed grades of the deposit.
Look at other data sets if available such as regional airborne and ground geophysics (particularly radiometrics to determine spatial variations in the surface of the orebody . Radiometric ratio image (K, K/Th. K/U) may show surficial variations within a zone of the deposit

Graphite

Sources of graphite are mainly hard rock derived from metamorphic rocks, with the main source regions are China and eastern Africa (Mozambiue and Madagasga). Australia has significant sources of graphite in South Australia and in North Queensland, but these have not been developed

Companies that deliver innovative solutions to generation of electricity in the Australian market include combinations of technologies that link solar and pump storage and photovoltaic cells and those that are linked to providing materials for lithium battery technology

An emerging challenge to Li-ion batteries – the Liquid metal battery

Another battery type is the liquid metal battery developed at MIT in the United States. This battery uses a molten salt electrolyte with liquid metal antimony (Sb) and Magnesium(Mg) electrodes. Power generated from renewable sources into this battery keeps the electrodes molten and allows storage of electricity. An electrolytic variant of this system has experimentally created molten iron and nickel which has been only possible using coking coal. The system has recently been adapted commercially to stabilise large storage devices. ‘Liquid metal’ battery technology developed as a potential low-cost competitor for lithium-ion looks set to be used at a data centre under development near Reno, Nevada. Rechargeable liquid-metal batteries are used for industrial power backup, special electric vehicles and for grid energy storage, to balance out intermittent renewable power sources such as solar panels and wind turbines.

The low cost of accessing the three components (salt, Sb and Mg) in this battery may see replacement of Li-ion batteries for stabilising renewable power for electric grids.

Basin Analyses Integration

Basin Analyses – Data Integration

High level basin analyses must consider the information gained from all public open file data available online and the use of the most recent company data as required to interpret and solve local anomalies . The following discussion identifies the publicly available data to undertake an analysis of Queensland’s basins. Each data set tells us something about the underlying rocks, but a results from interpretation of a single data set is not always directly applicable to the results of interpretation of another. A linking flow chart of the information from each data set to a final interpretation may allow a more comprehensive understanding for each basin. The sequence of using data sets is always from a regional concept (1:250 000 to 1:100 000 scale) to the detailed exploration project (<1:10,000 scale), and it is important to understand the geology at all scales using the appropriate technique for each scaling parameter.

Queensland Resources

The location of major mineral and energy resources of the state is given on a state-wide basis by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines (qld-resources-map (1))

The Late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic basins of Queensland have been extensively drilled particularly for energy resources (coal, oil and gas), but much of the mapping dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. Linking the outcropping geology to a subsurface information delivers a holistic three dimensional view of these basins.

Much of Queensland has been flown by airborne geophysics and this data set has not been used extensively to update the detailed geology of these basins. To maximise the potential of these basins it is important that all this data is used to update the interpretation of these economic basins.

This requires integration of available data sets and the solving of anomalies in interpretation locally and regionally. The variation in the type of data and the scale of the information poses a range of issues in data integration. Concepts of geology have been modified from the early mapping of the basin areas with updates to knowledge from sequence stratigraphy, chronstratigraphy and lithostratigraphy.

To generate a comprehensive interpretation of these basins requires an integrated approach by government and industry data to deliver a three dimensional basin concept to maximise knowledge of energy resources within basins and potential mineral resources at the margins of these basins.

Large Publicly available data sets that can be integrated with your project

A major coverage publicly available source of data is the geophysical data coverage of Queensland. A major significant coverage of data is Geophysical Data coverage.

Major subsets of this data are the 2D and 3D seismic lines mainly completed by exploration companies, deep crustal seismic, magnetotellurics, gravity and regional airborne geophysics completed by the state and commonwealth governments, and drill hole data completed by exploration companies and the state and commonwealth governments. These coverages are depicted below. Data was extracted from the DNRM website in March 2018.

Geophysical surveys in Queensland (Geophysical Data coverage)

Seismic data coverage (March, 2018)

The seismic data coverage is mainly concentrated in the southwest corner and the southern central part of the state associated with oil and gas in the Cooper and Surat Basins. Combinations of drilling, geological mapping and seismic data could be integrated to solve local interpretation anomalies. The 2D and 3D seismic is applicable for the subsurface data and linking to detailed drill hole interpretation of the stratigraphy.

Deep Crustal Seismic and Magnetotelluric surveys (March 2018)

At the margins of mineralised provinces in north Queensland deep crustal seismic reflection surveys have been completed. These surveys use the structural and petrophysical properties of rock bodies to create a depth profile of the geology. The acquired data (in conjunction with rock properties and geophysical data) enables a much better understanding of the geology and mineral potential of northern Queensland. It allows the imaging of deep regions of basinal areas and can pick older basin stratigraphy and structural disconformities at a significant depth.

Magnetotellurics (MT) was used along the same lines as the deep crustal seismic surveys. These currents are influenced by rock properties such as type, porosity, permeability and temperature. MT is an electromagnetic technique that measures naturally occurring electric (telluric) currents induced by variations in Earth’s magnetic field. These techniques were implemented to image the conductivity of Earth’s crust to similar depths as attained by the deep crustal surveys.

Magentotellurics surveys .

Airborne Geophysical Data Coverage (March, 2018)

The airborne geophysical data coverage is extensive with only the south-east corner, the northern tropical coast and an area in the central part of the state with no coverage. The south-east has flight restrictions around the major Brisbane and Coolangatta airports and the northern coast World Heritage tropical rain forest areas are unlikely to be covered by data. Integration of the radiometrics and magnetic data captured by this technique can improve the interpretation of stratigraphic contacts between basin units and show the magnetic (airborne magnetics) and non-magnetic (radiometics) fault features and the features of buried magnetic stratigraphy and igneous rock bodies (magnetics). This technique is particularly useful to update geological mapping interpretation derived solely from the use of aerial photographic interpretation over sedimentary basins from scales of 1:250 000 to 1:100 000.

Gravity Data over Queensland (March, 2018)

Gravity data detects variation in the density of rock bodies and is appropriate technique to assist in the location of mineral deposits that have a higher density than the surrounding rock bodies.

GSQ has completed regional gravity surveys with a station spacing that is equal to or less than 4km. The collected data was incorporated into the National Gravity Database.

Drilling Database Queensland (March 2018)

DNRM and the current Department of Resources, Queensland has major drilling data over the state derived from departmental and exploration drilling for water, stratigraphic interpretation and energy exploration and this can be downloaded from databases available online. Departmental custodians of this data that keep the information current in line with legislative controls of data delivery and public availability. To solve local issue requires access to other and more current company exploratory drilling. The use of drilling data with extensive seismic data can generate a 3D picture of large basin areas and identify the likely presence of fluids in these basins. This can be accompanied by local knowledge on specific products.

“A Local example of recording and updating the stratigraphy of the eastern Surat Basin (this has links to the second section on what our clients say).

A report interpreting and integrating regional airborne radiometric and magnetic geophysical imagery over the Surat Basin with boreholes and other data demonstrates that coal seam gas producing units (Springbok Sandstone and Walloon Coal Measures) can be defined in outcrop at the northern basin margin. This package of coal seam gas producing units could be distinguished from the underlying Mesozoic Eurombah Formation and overlying Westbourne Formation. The geochemical signatures of the different geological units were used to update the stratigraphy of the Surat basin in the area of outcrop.

In the subsurface, extension of the boundaries of the sub-cropping coal seam gas producing units beneath Cainozoic cover rocks was generated through interpreting and integrating regional airborne magnetic and radiometric imagery, coal seam gas drilling, stratigraphic drilling, water bore data, previous geological mapping and local knowledge from coal seam mining in the Walloon Coal Measures. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the extent of the entire sub crop extent of these units it was also necessary to understand the deposition sequence of the overlying Cainozoic Condamine Basin. This was by interpreting logs of water bore data and integrating these with regional radiometric and satellite imagery and also using hylogger multispectral analysis of surface and core samples combined with hand-held portable XRF results”.

For any additional information on your projects and details of experience contact us.