That 2000 year move was incredible. Looks like it went from 2.5 to 12. That must have made millions & billions for the commodity traders. Or bankruptcy for some.
UK banks on nuclear to escape Russian fuels Tensions with Russia have exacerbated the fuel cost crisis. Sellafield nuclear plant in England | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images By Emilio Casalicchio April 6, 2022 https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-banks-on-nuclear-to-escape-russian-fuels/ LONDON — The U.K. government has pledged to put new nuclear power at the heart of its plan to wean Britain off imported fossil fuels. In a fresh energy strategy, ministers pledged to deliver the equivalent of one nuclear reactor each year instead of one a decade, alongside major boosts in renewable energy schemes. But oil and gas exploration in the North Sea will expand in the short term, while the government has also indicated a new openness to fracking for shale gas. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was setting out a plan to “scale up and accelerate affordable, clean and secure energy made in Britain, for Britain.” But Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband said the plan had “failed on the sprint we needed on onshore wind and solar” and would leave households lumbered with rocketing bills. The U.K., alongside other nations, is facing a stark cost of living crisis due to international rising fuel prices, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Britain pledged to phase out Russian-imported oil and coal before the end of 2022, and is expected to do the same for Russian gas. The new plan promises to generate 24GW of nuclear power by 2050, including via new tech mini reactors, amounting to about a quarter of U.K. electricity demand. In 2019, nuclear supplied 17 percent of the country's electricity, according to analysis by the House of Lords. This energy comes from 13 nuclear reactors at six plants. Johnson's government is also promising reform of planning rules to increase the speed of offshore wind development, and offer of cheaper fuel bills in areas that allow local onshore wind farms.
Uranium stocks up again today, so just for fun thought to compare Uranium ETF with Bitcoin. 2 year percentage chart, Bitcoin black line, Uranium blue line.
Natural gas price flying today. What I thought to do was look at NG long term. I brought up a chart going back to 1975 as that's when it appears to get moving off its base. So what I observe is a peak around 2005-2006, then a volatile downtrend. That downtrend just broken recently, this past month. So then I thought to compare NG with gold, as a type proxy on inflation, this is what I get. NG black, gold blue line.
Something wrong with the NG / GC chart comparison. Since 1 May 1975, NG has increased 1737% while GC has increased 1210%. Thats better!
One mine auction draws 3448 bids in scramble for lithium, nearly 600 times higher than the starting price. Annie Lee May 24, 2022 https://www.afr.com/world/asia/one-...-bids-in-scramble-for-lithium-20220524-p5anx0 Hong Kong | An auction for a controlling stake in a Chinese lithium mine has garnered 3448 bids. Such demand underscores the scramble to secure the battery metal that is key to the clean-energy transition. The 54.3 per cent stake in in Yajiang Snowway Mining Development, which owns the mine in the south-western province of Sichuan, was sold for about 2 billion yuan ($420 million), said JD.com’s judicial auction platform. That’s nearly 600 times higher than the starting price of about 3.35 million yuan. Details of the winning bidder were not immediately available. The heated bidding war, which concluded on Saturday, was joined by 21 participants and more than 980,000 people watched online throughout the five-day event. Shift to electric vehicles “We believe the auction price indicates a bullish Chinese primary market for future lithium prices as well as the strategic importance of Sichuan spodumene assets,” Daiwa Capital Markets’ analysts Dennis Ip and Leo Ho said in a note. The shift to electric vehicles has spurred a global rush for lithium, which is used in virtually all EV batteries. It has caused Chinese prices of lithium carbonate to surge more than 400 per cent over the past year. The highest bid in a tender last month by Australia’s Pilbara Minerals for spodumene concentrate, a partly-processed form of lithium, more than doubled in just six months. Yajiang Snowway is undergoing a bankruptcy process. The Dechenonba lithium mine in Sichuan’s Yajiang area covers 1.14 square kilometres. It has estimated reserves of 24.9 million tonnes and a planned 1-million-tonne capacity a year.
US Seeks $4.3 Billion for Uranium to Wean Off Russia Supply Ari Natter, Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is pushing lawmakers to support a $4.3 billion plan to buy enriched uranium directly from domestic producers to wean the US off Russian imports of the nuclear-reactor fuel, according to a person familiar with the matter. Shares of uranium companies surged. Energy Department officials have met with key congressional staff, where they said such funding is urgently needed, said the person, who wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the information. Energy officials made the case that any interruption in the supply of enriched Russian uranium could cause operational disruptions at commercial nuclear reactors, the person said. US nuclear energy industry participants have also been briefed on the proposal, said a second person familiar with the details. The plan requires approval from Congress. The proposal aims to spur development of more domestic enrichment and other steps needed to turn uranium into reactor fuel, the person said. It would create a government buyer directly purchasing enriched uranium, including the type used in a new breed of advanced reactors now under development. Still, it won’t be easy for the US to jump-start the domestic uranium industry. The country has only one remaining commercial enrichment facility -- a New Mexico plant owned by Urenco Ltd., a British-German-Dutch consortium. Uranium Shares Surge The Global X Uranium ETF, an exchange-traded fund focused on the industry, jumped as much as 7.4% to its highest intraday price in a month on the news. Shares of uranium miners including Cameco Corp. and Energy Fuels Inc. soared along with nuclear fuel provider Centrus Energy Corp. The talks come as the Biden administration contemplates slapping sanctions on enriched uranium imports from Russia in response to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine while considering prospects that Russia could also decide to halt imports. Russia accounted for 16.5% of the uranium imported into the US in 2020 and 23% of the enriched uranium needed to power US commercial nuclear reactors. The Energy Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has called the US reliance on Russian imports a “vulnerability” for national and economic security, while drawing attention to the fact that US enrichment capacity has waned in part because of competition from state-subsidized sources. The proposal dovetails with legislation introduced earlier this year by Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who serves as a key swing vote, and Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, that would authorize billions of dollars in funding to increase the country’s domestic uranium enrichment capabilities. Other congressional backers of expanding US enrichment capabilities include Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican who serves as the top GOP member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Companies that could benefit from such a plan include Centrus Energy, the Bethesda, Maryland-based firm that is building an enrichment facility in Ohio, and ConverDyn, a joint venture between Honeywell International Inc. and General Atomics that provides uranium conversion services.
The battery that charges 70 times faster than lithium-ion Mark Ludlow Queensland bureau chief Updated Aug 10, 2022 https://www.afr.com/companies/energ...times-faster-than-lithium-ion-20220808-p5b84s Brisbane-based Graphene Manufacturing Group believes it has found a solution to help replace lithium-ion batteries which charge 70 times faster, are longer-lasting and better for the environment. While developers across the world are charging into what is expected to become a trillion-dollar battery market by 2050, GMG thinks it’s on a winner with its next-generation graphene aluminium-ion battery. Graphene Manufacturing Group founder and managing director Craig Nicol says all types of batteries are going to be needed to get to net zero by 2050. Paul Harris Lithium-ion batteries might be everywhere – used in everything from coin cell batteries, mobile phones to utility-scale batteries – but they require a range of rare metals which needs to be mined, creating a larger carbon footprint. There has also been a string of bad headlines over the past few years about utility scale lithium-ion batteries overheating and causing fires, including at Victoria’s big battery last year. GMG founder and managing director Craig Nicol – a former Shell executive – said it would be a “very bumpy ride” with the scale of batteries needed to decarbonise the world economy. But he said he was confident their graphene aluminium-ion battery – which GMG claims can charge up to 70 times faster, with three times more battery life, than lithium-ion batteries – would be part of the solution. “This technology was only developed a year ago and we are already making batteries. There is no other company in the world doing what we’re doing,” Mr Nicol told The Australian Financial Review. “We have a near-to-zero emissions product, but there will be lots of different battery types to get to the next step. We need to use all these products to get to the other side.” Through a top-secret production process, which breaks down natural gas into graphene powder, GMG is working on developing a pilot plant to start producing graphene-ion batteries by 2024. Rio Tinto partnership GMG, which is listed on the TSX Venture exchange in Canada with a market cap of about $300 million, is also using the graphene powder for spray paints for HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) products as well as automotive fluids. The company has already signed an informal partnership with global miner Rio Tinto about integrating some energy-saving products into operations as well as supply aluminium for GMG’s commercial battery operations which could be based in the industrial city of Gladstone in Central Queensland. On a tour of the company’s facilities in Richlands, in Brisbane’s western suburbs, scientists and engineers were testing the graphene powder for coin cell batteries as well as battery pouches which could be used from everything from mobile phones to utility-scale batteries. Graphene powder – which is black and as light as a feather – is being tested under different climatic conditions and voltage settings ahead of the pilot plant being built at the facility. Through a research agreement with the University of Queensland, GMG was granted exclusive licence of the patent-pending technology for battery cathodes – using nanotechnology to insert aluminium ions inside tiny perforations in GMG graphene platelets. The end result allows GMG to increase the energy density of their cathodes which allows them to outperform lithium-ion batteries – at least in the laboratory. Lithium-ion batteries are the dominant battery around the world, with China dominating about 90 per cent of materials required for production. They are cheap because they are produced at scale. Graphene powder straight from gas Mr Nicol watches chief scientific officer Ashok Nanjundan at work in GMG’s battery lab. Paul Harris Where GMG hopes to gain the advantage is its process for making graphene powder straight from gas, while competitors are still using the more costly process of making graphene from graphite – a process which takes a number of washing processes. Another key advantage of aluminium-ion batteries is the increased density – you can fit three times the electrons than in a lithium battery – and they don’t overheat to create fire risks. They are also safer too. A coin cell graphene aluminium-ion battery isn’t lethal if swallowed by a small child, but lithium-ion batteries can be. Compared to lithium batteries, graphene aluminium batteries don’t need lithium, copper, cobalt, manganese or rare earth materials to be mined for their production. They are also rechargable and 100 per cent recyclable too. “The opportunity for these batteries is limitless,” GMG general manager of batteries Mark Chan Yan said. Although the application for graphene is wide, Mr Nicol said GMG decided to focus on three products, including the HVAC energy-saving coating which is already being deployed. When coated on air-conditioning or refrigeration units, it can achieve heat savings of up to 50per cent. On diesel engine radiators it can improve performance by 20 per cent. The potential energy savings are part of why Rio Tinto has signed a partnership with GMG. The global miner will be able to supply aluminium from its alumina factory in Gladstone. For the moment, Mr Nicol said the graphene aluminum-ion batteries are likely to be used in heavy machinery, like mining, as well as in high-performance EVs. “Higher power density is our real competitive advantage now. More power and for longer,” he said. “The end game is we want to show we can make the best battery at the best price.”