After 70 years of extracting oil with Leduc being their first major find it turns out they have a chance to repeat in the same location with lithium? We have a lot of what is needed for the transition, just a matter of investing in the sector.
Imperial Oil to extract lithium from historic Alberta oil field
Jeff Lagerquist
Thu, June 23, 2022, 10:57 a.m.
Imperial Oil (IMO.TO)(IMO) is teaming up with a Calgary-based lithium company to extract a key metal used in batteries from one of its oil fields in Alberta.
E3 Lithium (ETMC.V) and Imperial, one of Canada’s largest integrated oil companies, announced their collaboration on a pilot project on Thursday aimed at feeding growing global demand for critical minerals. The companies plan to draw lithium from under Imperial’s Leduc oil field using E3’s proprietary technology designed to extract lithium from brine.
…
“Leduc No.1, Imperial’s first well into this reservoir, was one of Imperial’s most prolific oil discoveries in Alberta and transformed the provincial and Canadian economies, much like lithium has the potential to do,” E3 CEO Chris Doornbos added in the press release.
A reminder that lithium is not rare. Certainly not a rare earth.
The “rare earths” aren’t rare - they are just quite difficult to refine, because there are several sets of them that, within each set, are very close to chemically identical. (And some of the sets aren’t all that much different from each other, as well.)
The Platts seaborne lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide assessments jumped 115.9% and 139.4%, respectively, since the beginning of 2022 to $73,000/mt CIF North Asia and $75,900/mt CIF North Asia June 22, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed…
Vehicle manufacturers are struggling to restore normal operations. Along with a likelihood that the war in Ukraine will not end anytime soon, the emergence of a bearish factor which could hit global economies could result in a recession never encountered before. “For many countries, recession will be hard to avoid,” World Bank President David Malpass said June 7…
Vehicle inventories in the US remained tight as production struggled to recover from semiconductor shortages and other logistical challenges that began in the first half of 2021…New car registrations in the European Union dropped 13.7% to 3.72 million units over January-May, data from European Automobile Manufacturers Association showed, as semiconductor shortages negatively affected car sales across the region.