July 5 spot price of SMM rare earths

Envision Energy announced on September 21 that it had successfully energized a 25 MW/125 MWh LFP battery system at OCP Green Energy’s Benguerir mining site in Morocco. The system is undergoing testing before commercial operation and will shift surplus daytime solar power to peak-demand hours. It is designed to reduce the site’s peak-hour electricity bill by approximately 25%.

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the domestic battery industry announced a joint technology roadmap on September 22 to diversify beyond high-nickel NCM batteries into sodium-ion, all-solid-state and LFP technologies. The government will concentrate R&D support on sodium-ion commercialization and all-solid-state batteries for robots, drones and urban air mobility, while establishing joint research among the three major cell manufacturers and collaboration between material and cell companies. Private companies agreed to invest approximately KRW 8 trillion in R&D and manufacturing facilities by 2030, while the government plans to introduce production tax credits and develop standards for next-generation batteries.

Vulcan has started commercial-scale production of VULSORB, its proprietary adsorbent that selectively captures lithium from brine. The company will use VULSORB at its Lionheart lithium production plant, currently under construction in Germany and due for commissioning in the second half of 2028. Vulcan said VULSORB has completed thousands of operating cycles under real-world conditions, achieving lithium extraction efficiency of up to 95%. The adsorbent is aluminate-based, and Vulcan holds both the formulation and the manufacturing method. Vulcan noted that China, the largest global provider of adsorption-type direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology and products, placed export controls and strict licensing arrangements on overseas shipments in early 2025. Lionheart targets annual production of 24,000 mt of lithium hydroxide monohydrate over an estimated 30-year project life. Vulcan will focus on manufacturing VULSORB over the next 18-24 months ahead of Lionheart's commissioning and can license the technology globally through its VULTEC technology arm.