{"id":670522,"date":"2018-05-03T19:14:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=670522"},"modified":"2018-05-03T19:14:48","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:14:48","slug":"tesla-delivers-bad-news-for-cobalt-price-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=670522","title":{"rendered":"Tesla delivers bad news for cobalt price"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tesla<\/a><\/div>\n

Wall Street is aghast<\/a> at Elon Musk’s dismissive attitude toward analysts’ probing following a quarter of record (but less than expected) losses for Tesla, but the electric vehicle maker did provide some answers to questions that’s been vexing the mining industry.<\/p>\n

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a provider of price information and research on battery supply chains<\/a>, parsed the numbers after Tesla gave a rare indication of the relative proportions of raw materials used in its latest lithium-ion battery for its Model 3.<\/p>\n

At first blush it’s not good news for miners of cobalt, a crucial ingredient in batteries used in electric vehicles and cellphones that’s been trading near decade highs above $90,000 a tonne.<\/p>\n

Tesla is a proponent of nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) technology which requires less than a third the amount of cobalt<\/q><\/p>\n

Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) batteries favoured by most vehicle makers contain around 20% cobalt. Tesla is a proponent of nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) technology which requires less than a third the amount of cobalt:<\/p>\n

Musk said on Wednesday the cobalt content of its NCA cathode chemistry \u201cis already lower than next-generation cathodes that will be made by other cell producers with a nickel-manganese-cobalt ratio of 8:1:1\u2033.<\/p>\n

Benchmark said over six years \u2013 from the Roadster to the Model 3 \u2013 the EV producer has reduced its cobalt needs by 59% on average per vehicle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tesla’s US rivals and Japanese, Korean and German automakers have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to thrifting which suggests cobalt producers should not lose too much sleep:<\/p>\n

\n

Since their inception, cathode and battery manufacturers have been working on reducing their cobalt dependency as this is the most expensive raw material input.<\/p>\n

With NCM, a number of formulations have been developed over the last 25 years, each with a lower cobalt intensity usage than the next.<\/p>\n

The original NCM111 material has evolved into NCM523 (5 parts nickel, 2 cobalt and 3 manganese) and more recently, NCM622 (6 parts nickel, 2 cobalt and 3 manganese).<\/p>\n

The end game with this chemistry is to develop NCM811, to which Elon Musk’s refers to. However, this is still a number of years away from widespread commercial adoption due to lifecycle and safety concerns but will offer a lower raw material costs and improved energy density.<\/p>\n

In fact, Benchmark only expects NCM811 to have a material impact on the lithium ion battery industry from 2022 onwards when we forecast it to account for 10% of the cathode market.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Annual production cobalt is only around 100,000 tonnes primarily as a byproduct of nickel and copper mining with more than 60% coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where fears about political instability and the challenges of ethical sourcing combine to supercharge supply concerns.<\/p>\n

\n

Source: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Return to rare earths<\/h3>\n

Another significant difference between Tesla and other automakers has been its use of induction motors in its Roadster and S models, which unlike permanent magnet traction motors features no rare earths elements.<\/p>\n

Car manufacturers are keen to reduce reliance on rare earths, which like cobalt, suffers from highly concentrated supply and unpredictable pricing, with China holding a virtual global monopoly in primary supply and processing.<\/p>\n

What this argument ignores however is that induction motors are upwards of 15% less efficient than permanent magnet traction motors<\/q><\/p>\n

But with the Model 3, which Tesla hopes would turn it into a mass-market success and not just a niche luxury car manufacturer, the company has ditched induction motors.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with Electrek, Tesla’s principal motor designer justified the switch as a \u201ctradeoff between motor cost, range, and battery cost\u201d and explained that \u201cthe permanent magnet machine better solved [Tesla’s] cost minimization function, and it was optimal for the range and performance target\u201d.<\/p>\n

New research by Adamas Intelligence<\/a>, a strategic metals and minerals advisory, suggest that the switch back to permanent magnet motors in the Model 3 comes with significant costs savings<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

It can be observed that the direct bill of materials for a PM traction motor is approximately 15% higher than that of a comparable induction motor \u2013 primarily because of NdFeB magnet costs \u2013 a fact that proponents of induction motors often cite as the architecture’s main advantage.<\/p>\n

What this argument ignores however is that induction motors are upwards of 15% less efficient than PM traction motors, especially at low speeds, thus an automaker using an induction motor may need to compensate with a larger (and costlier) battery pack so as to offer a competitive driving range (mileage per charge).<\/p>\n

The cost of increasing the capacity of a 60-kWh battery pack by just 5% to compensate for use of an induction motor can increase powertrain costs by upwards of $300 (optimistically assuming an added cost of just $100\/kWh), suggesting that use of a PM traction motor is substantially more economically attractive despite higher direct material costs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Source: Adamas Intelligence<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post Tesla delivers bad news for cobalt price<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wall Street is aghast at Elon Musk’s dismissive attitude toward analysts’ probing following a quarter of record (but less than expected) losses for Tesla, but the electric vehicle maker did provide some answers to questions that’s been vexing the mining industry. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a provider of price information and research on battery supply chains, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":"default","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":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","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 center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[360],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infomine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=670522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=670522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=670522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=670522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}