Mining has historically been a one-size-fits-all type of operation, where the company follows strong seams of a particular mineral. Everything else is pushed aside into heaps that miners euphemistically call ‘tailings’. We were pleased to hear of new initiative bringing recycling battery mining tailings back in focus.
We Have to Get Smarter With What We Already Have
The project is a joint initiative involving U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, and a U.S. company Talon Metals. The team knows that electric vehicle growth depends on battery materials, and that we should source these locally where possible.
Talon Metals is a relatively new entrant to the U.S. market, with a mission to tap into a rich source of high grade nickel. This mineral has extensive applications in the manufacture of nickel cadmium, and nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries.
Its advantages include higher energy density, and greater storage capacity at lower cost according to Nickel Institute. Moreover, the resource’s future seems assured in high energy storage batteries, because it is stable and does not burn.
However, and here’s the catch, no mineral on earth is in infinite, inexhaustible supply, and the damage we cause to our earth is immense as we tear it apart. Argonne and Talon have set out to prove that recycling battery mining tailings is possible, economically feasible, and environmentally responsible too.
More From Less By Recycling Battery Mining Tailings
The Talon mine is a rich resource of high-grade nickel, which plays an essential role in the production of steel, and more recently battery electrodes. However, mining and refining at the mine produces several other iron compounds, that traditionally end up in mine tailings,
The Argonne / Talon project seeks to exploit these ’secondary’ materials, which could play a primary role in the production of lithium iron phosphate cathodes. This could reduce the damage future mining does to our earth, while also increasing the profitability of the mine.
More Information
Thomas Edison’s Nickel-Iron Batteries
First Nickel-Metal Hydride Batteries Arrive
