Recharge by Battery Materials Review

Recharge June 21 (Lithium, Ford, M&A, Resource nationalism, Altech Chems)

In June's edition of Recharge there's the usual update on all the previous month's news from Matt Fernley and Cormac O'Laoire, which includes discussion on the lithium market, an update on Ford's EV and battery strategy as well as thoughts on M&A and resource nationalism in the sector.

This month's interview is with Iggy Tan, MD of ASX-listed Altech Chemicals (ASX:ATC). We discuss HPA demand growth in lithium-ion batteries HPA (High Purity Alumina) is rapidly becoming essential for use in the development of high density lithium-ion batteries and Iggy introduces the industry and his company's development plans.

We are grateful to this episode's sponsor, ICC Sino, an essential source of lithium battery market research.

Recharge May 21 (China, LFP, cathodes, SpodCon, McKinsey)

In May's edition of Recharge there's the usual update on all the previous month's news from Matt Fernley and Cormac O'Laoire, which includes an update on China, discussions on LFP vs Ternary batteries, cathode capacity additions and Hard Rock prices and outlook.

This month's interview is with Ken Hoffman from McKinsey's Basic Materials Institute, who talks in more detail about the fascinating tear-down report  on a number of batteries recently released by his team and gives some insight about their thoughts on future strategy in batteries and battery raw materials. 

Enjoy our podcasts? Check out our free Investor's Guide to Battery Materials series.

Recharge April 21 (China, VW Power Day, LFP, EV sales, Rodney Hooper)

In this month's Recharge, co-hosts Matt Fernley from Battery Materials Review and Cormac O'Laoire discuss all the news in the world of EVs, batteries and battery materials over the past month. This month's interview is with Rodney Hooper from RK equity, a long-time expert on lithium and co-host of the Lithium-ion Rocks podcast and the Rock Stock channel.

Recharge - Mar 2021 (China, Nickel, LGC/SKI, Medallion Resources)

March's edition of Recharge, co-hosted by Matt Fernley from Battery Materials Review with Cormac O'Laoire from Electrios Energy, discusses all the key newsflow from February, including an update on developments in China, the uptick in materials capital raisings, the Tsingshan nickel developments, the situation between SK Innovation and LG Chemical in the US, and cathode capacity additions.

This month's interview is with Mark Saxon, CEO of Medallion Resources (TSXV:MDL) who talks about supply and demand for critical rare earths as well as his company's revolutionary technology for extracting rare earths from mineral sands.

Enjoy our podcasts? Why not check out our Investor's Guide to Battery Materials series?

Recharge - Feb 2021(China, REE, GM, Pallinghurst Group)

February's edition of Recharge, co-hosted by Matt Fernley from Battery Materials Review with Cormac O'Laoire from Electrios Energy, discusses all the key newsflow from January, including China's REE exports hitting a 5-year low, China EV and battery developments (CATL, BYD, NIO), the uptick in equity raisings in battery materials and the GM rebrand.

This month's interview is with Chris Shepherd, Partner and Managing Director of The Pallinghurst Group [30.22], who discusses his company's strategy as a key investor in Battery Materials, both in terms of what they're looking for in a new investment and what attracted them to their existing investments in Nouveau Monde Graphite (TSXV:NOU) and Nemaska Lithium.

Enjoy our podcasts? Why not check out our Investor's Guide to Battery Materials series?

Recharge - January 2021

It's a New Year and a new format for Recharge in our January 2021 edition. I'm very happy to welcome guest host Cormac O'Laoire, MD of Electrios Energy. Cormac has over 10 years of experience in the battery industry and has been specialising in the Chinese battery industry for the last 7 years. He brings some fascinating perspectives to our discussion of December's key developments.

This month's interview is with Stephen Biggins, MD of Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) [30:32] who gives some interesting detail on his company's Finniss project, which is shaping up to be the next cab off the rank in Australia's hard rock lithium sector.

Recharge - November 2020

November 2020's edition of Recharge by Battery Materials Review discusses how localisation of supply chains can increase the sustainability of battery production. We highlight the key projects which could make up future localised supply chains for both Europe and North America, and also discuss some of the key factors in battery materials production which can impact greenhouse gas emissions.

We also include our usual recap of all the key news flow in global batteries and raw materials markets, as well as analysis of key developments.

Our interview this month is with Ying Lu, a senior analyst at Roskill who specialises in nickel and nickel sulphate for the battery industry. She provides some fascinating insights into the emerging supply/demand gap in battery grade nickel sulphate and the various attempts to fill it.

Recharge - October 2020

October 2020's edition of Recharge by Battery Materials Review discusses our lead article's view that under-investment in battery raw materials is now the biggest danger to the electric vehicle event. Shortage of raw materials is likely to lead to higher material prices and higher material prices to higher battery prices, which could make electric vehicles uneconomic.

We also include our usual recap of all the key news flow in global batteries and raw materials markets, as well as analysis of key developments.

Our interview this month is with Marco Romero, CEO of Euro Manganese (TSXV/ASX:EMN). High purity manganese came out as one of the big winners of the Tesla Battery Day and Marco highlights why the industry is so misunderstood and why he believes his company's project is so important.

Recharge - September 2020

In September 2020's edition of Recharge by Battery Materials Review, the Focus article is on the subject of incentive prices in lithium and nickel and we discuss the level that prices need to reach before it will be economic for producers to invest in new capacity.

We also include our usual recap of all the key news flow in global batteries and raw materials markets, as well as analysis of key developments.

Our interview this month is with Matt Harper of AIM-listed Invinity Energy Systems (AIM:IES), a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) producer. We discuss some of the key challenges and opportunities in the VRFB market and talk in detail about the outlook for Invinity.

Recharge - July 2020

In July 2020's edition of Recharge by Battery Materials Review we discuss this month's focus topic from the Review which is the impact on our materials demand forecasts of an increase in our EV sales forecasts. Basically our more bullish EV sales forecasts bring forward the expected supply/demand gap from the mid-2020s to the early-2020s. This means that it's now more urgent than ever for capital to be invested in the battery raw materials sector.

We also have the usual recap of upstream and downstream news, exploration, financing, trade and equity market analysis.

Our interview this month is with John Downie, Managing Director of ASX-listed Pure Minerals (ASX:PM1). Pure Minerals is looking to develop a Ni/Co refinery to process laterite nickel ore without going down the HPAL route, utilising a technique piloted in the early-2010s. Given our view that nickel is likely to be one of the most under-supplied battery materials, all methods of expanding production are of interest.