Asteroid mining might help EVs

Asteroid mining might supply the cobalt needed for electric vehicle makers if Earth’s supplies fall short.

Cobalt is an important raw material in lithium-ion batteries powering EVs. But about 60% of the world’s cobalt is produced as a by-product of copper and nickel ores in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Most of these cobalt reserves are controlled by Chinese miners, supplying to Chinese battery manufacturers and EV makers, medium.com reports.

That could impact on other EV industries in the western world.

Goldman Sachs says rapidly falling manufacturing costs are reducing the barrier for firms to participate in the new space economy.

Deep Space Industries (DSI)and Planetary Resources are among those considering asteroid mining.

California-based DSI started asteroid prospecting plans with micro-spacecrafts such as Prospector-X, designed to test critical functions such as propulsion and avionics.

Data from this mission will be used to launch Prospector-1 in 2020, which could become the first private mission to assess extractable resources in asteroids.

The next stage will be led by the larger Harvestor spacecrafts. In some cases, the harvested resources (iron, nickel and cobalt) will be returned to Earth. Resources (water and carbon dioxide) will be processed in space to produce rocket fuel and stored to serve as gas stations for outbound spacecraft.

Planetary Resources, a Washington-based firm sent a nanosatellite, the Arkyd 3R, into space on a SpaceX rocket, and the Arkyd 6, providing for more advanced asteroid prospecting crafts  the Arkyd 100, 200 and 300 Series.

Both companies are still years away from asteroid mining, needing serious funding.

But Luxembourg hopes to become a world leader in that field, entering an agreement with Planetary Resources to launch a first commercial asteroid prospecting mission by 2020.

Asteroid mining raises technical, economic and legal issues. And cobalt may not eventually be needed for EV batteries.

Panasonic and Tesla, for instance, are planning to reduce or avoid having cobalt in EV batteries.

Panasonic automotive business head Yoshio Ito says it has been working closely with Tesla and preparing to accelerate production of battery cells it supplies to Tesla.

Tesla has indicated it is “significantly reducing cobalt content” across its entire range of batteries for all vehicle types, including the Tesla Semi truck.

“We have already cut down cobalt usage substantially,” Panasonic senior vice president Kenji Tamura says. “We are aiming to achieve zero usage in the near future, and development is underway.”

Cobalt replacement is likely to be nickel, although other technologies using vanadium, zinc and graphene, could be developed.