The New EV Gold-Rush:
Automakers Scramble to Get Into Mining
Posted: May 23, 2023
Authors: Mike Colias and Scott Patterson
Source: Wall Street Journal
A scarcity of EV battery materials pushes car companies and miners to work closer together; for both, there is a learning curve.
When General Motors began outlining plans in 2020 to fully switch to electric vehicles, it didn’t account for one critical factor: Many of the battery minerals needed to fulfill its plans were still in the ground.
“I remember seeing a report from our raw-materials team at the time saying, ‘There is plenty of lithium out there. There is plenty of nickel’,” said Sham Kunjur, an industrial engineer now in charge of securing the raw materials for GM’s batteries. “We will buy them from the open market.”
GM executives soon came to discover how off the mark those projections were, and now Mr. Kunjur’s 40-person team is scouring the globe for these minerals.