{"id":1092241,"date":"2019-01-02T13:19:39","date_gmt":"2019-01-02T13:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=961774"},"modified":"2019-01-02T13:19:39","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T13:19:39","slug":"blackwater-founder-launches-fund-to-invest-in-electric-car-battery-metals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1092241","title":{"rendered":"Blackwater founder launches fund to invest in electric car battery metals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Blackwater founder\u00a0Erik Prince\u00a0aims to raise as much as $500 million to invest in metals needed for making the batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/89245498-0507-11e9-9d01-cd4d49afbbe3?segmentId=786c7e0e-fcc5-282a-7c0e-74ecfe4825a7\"  rel=\"noopener\"><em>Financial Times<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Prince, who besides starting the controversial private security company is known for have been an informal campaign adviser to US President Donald Trump, said the fund will bring unexplored deposits into production and then sell them to large miners after four to five years.<\/p>\n<p>The fund will focus mainly on cobalt, copper and lithium assets located mainly in Africa and Asia, Prince told <em>FT.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor all the talk of our virtual world, the innovation, you can\u2019t build these vehicles without minerals that come from generally weird, hard-to-access places,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-961777\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/li-ion-battery-boom-and-its-impact-on-raw-material-markets.jpg\" alt=\"Blackwater founder launches fund to invest in electric car battery metals\" width=\"900\" height=\"596\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/li-ion-battery-boom-and-its-impact-on-raw-material-markets.jpg 900w, http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/li-ion-battery-boom-and-its-impact-on-raw-material-markets-300x199.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/li-ion-battery-boom-and-its-impact-on-raw-material-markets-768x509.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Metals such as cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper have seen demand soar in recent years as\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/auto-industrys-use-lithium-ion-batteries-grow-seven-fold-2025\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">the shift away<\/a>\u00a0from cars powered by fossil fuels gains momentum and mining companies are investing billions of dollars into developing deposits of those key commodities.<\/p>\n<p>Experts expect the need for the commodity from battery makers alone\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/lithium-demand-battery-makers-almost-double-2027\/\"  rel=\"noopener\">to jump 650% by\u00a02027<\/a>, while overall demand is forecast to rise more than threefold in the next nine years.<\/p>\n<p>Prices, however, are projected to drop in the early 2020s as a result of an ever-rising number of projects expected to come online.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_961778\" style=\"width: 814px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-961778\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer.jpg\" alt=\"Blackwater founder launches fund to invest in electric car battery metals\" width=\"804\" height=\"513\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer.jpg 804w, http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer-300x191.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.mining.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/lithium-supply-by-producer-768x490.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wave of lithium supply coming online. (<em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmocm.com\/\"  rel=\"noopener\"> BMO Capital Markets.<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Prince sold Blackwater in 2010, after it was hit with a series of lawsuits. Since then, he\u2019s been running Frontier Services Group, which provides integrated security, logistics and insurance services in frontier markets and is backed by Hong Kong investor Chun Shun Ko and China\u2019s CITIC Group.<\/p>\n<p>Frontier has also invested in a bauxite mine in Guinea, and identified a copper and cobalt deposit in the Congo.<\/p>\n<p>Prince\u2019s sister Elisabeth Dee DeVos is Trump\u2019s education secretary.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/blackwater-founder-launches-fund-invest-electric-car-battery-metals\/\">Blackwater founder launches fund to invest in electric car battery metals<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/\">MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The founder of US private security company Blackwater aims to raise as much as $500 million to invest in deposits of metals such as cobalt, lithium and copper, mainly in Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/blackwater-founder-launches-fund-invest-electric-car-battery-metals\/\">Blackwater founder launches fund to invest in electric car battery metals<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/\">MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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