Toronto, Ontario — In this weekly Tuesday Ticker, Snow Lake Lithium plans a Manitoba-based lithium mine for EV battery materials; Canadian Tesla drivers grow anxious over the soon-to-be-released Full Self Driving Beta and PPG enters an agreement to acquire an Italian powder coatings supplier.
Lithium mines in Manitoba
A Manitoban company has a vision to create the world’s first all-electric lithium mine for car batteries.
Operating out of Snow Lake, Manitoba, Snow Lake Lithium outlined its plan to create the lithium mine last week. According to its plans, the site is set to be powered by renewable electricity and is looking to supply North America with a domestic supply of lithium—a critical component in electric vehicle batteries.
The company’s 55,000-acre site is seven hours north of Winnipeg, Man., by car—but Snow Lake is connected to the rest of North America via the Arctic Gateway rail.
Snow Lake Lithium says its site is expected to produce 160,000 tonnes of six percent lithium spodumene of a ten-year period, but also says it has only explored one percent of its site and it remains confident there is more lithium to be found.
“Our ambition is to become the first fully integrated, carbon-neutral lithium hydroxide provider to the North American electric vehicle industry,” said Philip Gross, CEO of Snow Lake Lithium. “We are developing the world’s first all-electric lithium mine, operated by renewable power, and are currently looking for a joint venture partner to create a lithium hydroxide processing plant in the region.”
“We are facing a once-in-a-century industrial pivot as North America accelerates towards an electrified future,” said Gross. “If we don’t act now to secure a seamless lithium supply chain from rock to road, the North American car industry will not exist in 10 years’ time.”
Bring on the beta
Tesla owners are surely excited as company CEO Elon Musk teased that Canada will soon see a self-driving beta—in “the next two to four weeks,” Musk said Jan. 17 via Twitter.
It’s been more than a year since Tesla began slowly rolling out what it touts as its “Full Self-Driving Beta” (FSD Beta), an early version of its self-driving software that is currently being tested by a fleet of Tesla owners selected by the company and through its “safety test score.“
Canada will be the first official expansion of the FSD Beta outside the U.S.
PPG pockets powder coatings supplier
PPG has entered an agreement to acquire Italian powder coatings business Arsonsisi. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2022.
Arsonsisi is a supplier of specialty powder coatings for the architectural and industrial markets. Upon completion of the acquisition, PPG says it will be able to expand its powder coatings offerings in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region to include metallic bonding, one of the features in specialty finishes for automotive, appliance and general industrial applications.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
