[company] Canada first cobalt and Glencore will restart their cobalt refineries, and the plan will be completed early next year

Canada's first cobalt company (first cobalt, tsx-v:fcc) released the latest information on the progress of re commissioning the cobalt refinery in cooperation with Glencore (Glencore, lon:glen) on Wednesday. The refinery that first cobalt cooperates with Glencore is located in the north of Toronto.

Glencore provided an initial loan of $5million to commodity trading giant first cobalt to restart the company's refinery in Ontario, which will become the only refined cobalt production plant in the North American electric vehicle (EV) market.

Glencore said in August that the restart plan will be completed in early 2020. Once the feasibility study of the plan is completed, it will invest another $40million to re Commission and expand the refinery.

First cobalt said that the refinery will complete the pre feasibility study of 12 ton / day restart in the first quarter of 2020 and the second final feasibility study of the 55 ton / day expansion plan in the second half of 2021. (source: SMM)

[market] the Spring Festival stock of material factories is nearing the end, and it is expected that the short-term cobalt lithium price will hover at a low level

Ternary materials: the price of ternary materials continued to fall last week. Affected by the oversupply of the market, the price of 523 continued to decline. On the 622 side, affected by BYD's switch to the lithium iron phosphate route, the mood of related suppliers was more pessimistic, and some manufacturers planned to reduce the production of 622 materials next year. At present, the inventory level of ternary materials in the whole industry is acceptable. The price of SMM ternary material (type 523) is 127000-139000 yuan / ton, and the average price is 3000 yuan / ton lower than that of the previous week. The price of SMM ternary material (type 622) is 146000-156000 yuan / ton, and the average price is 4000 yuan / ton lower than that of the previous week.

Lithium iron phosphate: the price of lithium iron phosphate was flat last week. With the new round of iteration of lithium iron phosphate technology, the supply situation of various manufacturers has also changed. Manufacturers with the first gradient technology have successfully entered the supply chain system of leading battery enterprises, and the supply volume is relatively stable; The supply of other manufacturers fell significantly. Last week, the price of SMM lithium iron phosphate (power type) was 42500-45500 yuan / ton, with the average price unchanged from the previous week.

Future forecast: the Spring Festival stock up of the material factory is coming to an end, and the market is pessimistic about the future order demand. At present, the inventory pressure of the cobalt lithium industrial chain is concentrated on the smelting end and the ore / intermediate end, and the short-term price is expected to remain low. (source: Shanghai Nonferrous Metals network)

[technology] Argonne team develops new analytical technology to find the next generation of battery cathode materials

According to foreign media reports, the Argonne National Laboratory Team in the United States has developed powerful new analysis technology to detect the crystal microstructure in three-dimensional space and find the next generation of battery cathode materials, which may completely change the way of transportation and power grid energy storage.

The researchers are from four departments in Argonne: Department of materials science, Department of chemical science and engineering, Department of data science and research, and Department of X-ray science. Matthew Krogstad, the postdoctoral nominee of the Department of materials science, is responsible for the key work. It is an important factor for success to study the high-power X-ray beam in the synchrotron center.

This multidisciplinary cooperation project explores what happens in the process of "embedding" through new tools. When the battery generates electricity, ions are inserted between the positive layers; The next step is the "de embedding" process. When the battery is charged, the same ions are extracted from the positive electrode. Traditional lithium-ion batteries work through this process. In order to find better cathode materials, scientists use X-ray and electron diffraction to determine how lithium ions or other inserts form long-range ordered structures. This structure hinders the movement of metal ions in the positive electrode, affects the extraction and insertion of metal ions in the circulation process, and reduces the performance of the battery.

In this project, the research team first prepared single crystals of layered vanadium oxide cathode materials embedded with sodium ions. Sodium is abundant and low-cost, so sodium ion batteries are considered as a substitute for lithium-ion batteries. The three-dimensional "image" shows that sodium ions are jagged in the separation column of vanadium oxide atoms. When the temperature drops below room temperature, the atoms in the crystal structure become more ordered. In sodium batteries, ions will diffuse along these zigzag channels. Raymond Osborn of Argonne Department of Materials Science Explained, "the larger the jagged crack, the higher the mobility of ions. The higher the mobility of ions, the better the performance of cathode materials." (source: Gaishi automobile)

[market] the price of cobalt is stable, and the price of lithium continues to decline

Since the Ministry of industry and information technology abolished the standard conditions for automotive power battery industry in June this year, it shows that the state has opened the domestic market to foreign-funded battery enterprises, and domestic models equipped with foreign-funded batteries can receive subsidies for new energy vehicles. On December 6, the Ministry of industry and information technology released the 11th batch of catalogue of recommended models for the promotion and application of new energy vehicles in 19 years. Tesla Model 3 entered the promotion catalogue and was eligible for 2475 national subsidies according to the existing national subsidy policies. Tesla, LG, ski and other foreign-funded enterprises enter the domestic market before the withdrawal of the subsidy policy, which can effectively promote the development process of electric vehicles in China and supplement the effective production capacity of power batteries.

Cobalt: the downstream demander implements the Spring Festival stock preparation procurement, and the transaction price changes little compared with last week. In terms of cobalt hydroxide, manufacturers reported an increase in inquiries, but the actual transaction was still affected by the psychological price difference, which was too large to land.

Lithium: at present, the downstream demand is sporadic. In order to reduce the inventory level and withdraw funds before the year, some enterprises have reduced prices and sold goods. In this process, battery grade lithium carbonate with relatively greater inventory pressure may be the party that actively reduces the price, while industrial grade lithium carbonate is in a passive position to fall due to the relatively stable downstream demand. The price of lithium carbonate is expected to remain under pressure in the future. (source: Shanghai Nonferrous Metals network)

[company] Yongxing material obtained the upstream lithium mining right

Yongxing materials announced on the evening of December 8 that recently, Yongxing new energy, a subsidiary of the company, signed an agreement on equity change and investment increase with "Huaqiao mining", "Yichun mining" and "Huaqiao YONGTUO". After the implementation of the agreement, Yongxing materials obtained the mining right of lithium resources, realizing a complete new energy lithium battery industry chain from mining of mineral resources to brine production to battery grade lithium carbonate preparation.

According to the agreement, Yongxing new energy will own 70% of the shares of "Huaqiao YONGTUO", and "Huaqiao mining" will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of "Huaqiao YONGTUO". Huaqiao mining has the mining right license of Huashan porcelain mine in Baishi Village, Huaqiao Township, Yifeng county.

The data shows that the porcelain stone mining right area of Baishi mining area is 1.8714 square kilometers, and the production scale is 1 million tons / year; As of April 30, 2019, the accumulated identified and controlled intrinsic economic resources (332) and inferred intrinsic economic resources (333) were 45.073 million tons of ore. The mining mineral of the mine is ceramic soil, and the main components of ore minerals are quartz, albite, muscovite, etc., as well as the accessory minerals of granite, such as lepidolite, cassiterite, and the characteristic minerals of the deposit, such as lepidolite and lepidolite. Among them, lepidolite is the mineral raw material required by the new energy lithium battery industry chain of Yongxing materials.

At present, the 10000 ton / year battery grade lithium carbonate project of Yongxing material is being actively promoted. The project consists of two production lines, each with a design capacity of 5000 tons. The first production line has entered the stage of continuous production, with a design annual capacity of 5000 tons. At present, the average daily output has exceeded 15 tons. (source: Shanghai Securities News)

【Think tank circle】Cost and safety improvement of cathode materials under the trend of high nickel and low cobalt

Although the industry is optimistic about the long-term development of the new energy vehicle industry, the short-term expectation is pessimistic, especially in the coming 2020, the general view is that "the cold winter is even worse". In this context, promoting consumption has become the main tone of the new energy vehicle industry, and price and safety have become important criteria for consumers to consider when purchasing new energy vehicles.

The cost of positive material power battery accounts for a large proportion, and the safety of high nickel material is facing great challenges due to the reduction of the content of cobalt and manganese used to stabilize the structure. At the 7th ABEC 2019 │ China (Changzhou Jintan) battery new energy industry international summit forum held at the end of last month, under the trend of rapid promotion and application of high-energy density cathode materials, the reduction of battery cost and the improvement of safety performance became the focus of the participants. Some participants suggested that through the improvement of quality control management ability, the improvement of automation level, material doping and coating modification Optimize the sintering process and other aspects to improve the performance of cathode materials.

Article source:Battery net