A lack of vehicle-charging infrastructure, along with constraints on the supply of battery raw materials, were the major challenges to growth in the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), the chief executive officer of diversified mining company Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) has said.
Lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite are critical raw materials for the production of battery cathodes and anodes, while copper is central to the EV charging infrastructure required to support the sector.
According to Benedikt Sobotka, if demand for EVs continues to increase as expected, there will be serious problems concerning the availability of materials, both cathode and anode, and with the parts of the battery and the different chemistries that are being evaluated.
"The world hasn't produced this amount of energy materials before," Sobotka told a webinar on Wednesday October 13 during the annual LME Week event.
"In the past," he said, "the largest battery was the lead-acid battery, which was almost 100% recyclable. The dominance today of the lithium-ion battery is a challenge because the percentage [of the material open to] recycling is very, very small."
Sobotka said that the lack of visibility about which battery technology...