Electric Vehicle EV:
MiningMaven, the Canadian explorer and developer’s chief executive Mitchell Smith said that the trend toward green technology is accelerating at a faster pace than ever. And the biggest driver by far is the electric vehicle (“EV”) boom.
Pick any forecast, and it will paint a picture of a not-too-distant future where roads around the world are lined with these fossil-fuel-free automobiles. For example, Bloomberg New Energy Finance expects 500 million EVs to be in use by 2040. Even OPEC foresees a global fleet of roughly 320 million of the vehicles by this point.
But to get to this stage, a lot of money needs to be spent.
The UK’s RhoMotion recently suggested that global investment in the EV supply chain will be well more than USD$1 trillion. Meanwhile, Bloomberg expects automakers to invest some US$300 billion over the next five to ten years on EV development and production.
A major part of this expense will arise from the purchase of the raw materials that are needed to create these EVs. And digging even deeper, the most sought-after part of this will be metals like nickel, cobalt, and copper used to create the electric batteries that power these automobiles.
Currently, there is an over-reliance on unstable, third-world jurisdictions when it comes to sourcing these battery metals.
Take cobalt as an example.
This metal is critical to many EV batteries. However, its supply is often limited and disrupted as a result of a considerable over-reliance on mining in DRC – an African country rife with political instability and human rights violations.
The dire need for reliable sources of battery metals in safe, pro-mining jurisdictions as the EV revolution continues to increase is becoming increasingly apparent.
As Smith put it to us: “Supply chains need to be diversified into jurisdictionally safe parts of the world. Places like Australia, or like North America, or parts of Europe that have materials that can be produced. We cannot over-rely on one area, especially one that isn’t stable.” |
