Ontario to ban use of cellphones in school classrooms starting in September
Ontario is introducing a suite of measures that will crack down on cellphone use and vaping in schools.
Tesla is turning to Mozambique for a key component in its electric car batteries in what analysts believe is a first-of-its-kind deal designed to reduce its dependence on China for graphite.
Elon Musk's company signed an agreement last month with Australia's Syrah Resources, which operates one of the world's largest graphite mines in the southern African country. It's a unique partnership between an electric vehicle manufacturer and a producer of the mineral that is critical for lithium-ion batteries. The value of the deal hasn't been released.
Tesla will buy the material from the company's processing plant in Vidalia, Louisiana, which sources graphite from its mine in Balama, Mozambique. The Austin, Texas-based electric automaker plans to buy up 80 per cent of what the plant produces -- 8,000 tons of graphite per year -- starting in 2025, according to the agreement. Syrah must prove the material meets Tesla's standards.
The deal is part of Tesla's plan to ramp up its capacity to make its own batteries so it can reduce its dependence on China, which dominates global graphite markets, said Simon Moores of United Kingdom-based battery materials data and intelligence provider, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
"It starts at the top with geopolitics," Moores said. "The U.S. wants to build enough capacity domestically to be able to build (lithium-ion batteries) within the USA. And this deal will permit Tesla to source graphite independent from China."
Moores said producing the batteries in the U.S. will reduce some of the questions Tesla is facing about its ties to China, where there are environmental concerns at some mines. The automaker also has set up a showroom in the region of Xinjiang, where Chinese officials are accused of forced labour and other human rights abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic minorities.
A message was left seeking comment from Tesla, which has disbanded its media relations department.
The battery industry has been confronted with a short supply of graphite in recent months, Moores said. Graphite stores lithium inside a battery until it's needed to generate electricity by splitting into charged ions and electrons.
It comes as every major automaker is racing to get into electric vehicles amid concerns about climate change.
Tesla is making almost a million electric cars per year, and sourcing enough batteries is its biggest constraint, he said.
"They've upped their own battery manufacturing capacity," Moores said, but still "they can't get enough batteries."
A new battery factory that the company is building in its new hometown of Austin, Texas, will allow it to get closer to self-sufficiency, but Moores said it is still buying batteries from other manufacturers, "and that won't change this decade."
For instance, Tesla has a deal with Panasonic to make battery cells at the automaker's battery factory near Reno, Nevada.
The deal with Syrah is part of a broader effort by automakers to secure relatively scarce raw materials for batteries as demand for electric vehicles is expected to grow, said Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst for Guidehouse Insights.
The deal also brings the graphite processed in Louisiana much closer to Tesla's U.S. factories.
"The pandemic pointed out to us that we've got these long, long, long supply chains, and it doesn't take much to disrupt a supply chain," said Donald Sadoway, a professor of materials chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Somebody could all of the sudden say, `We're going to jack up the prices,' or `We're going to refuse to ship it."'
It's unlikely that the Tesla deal with Syrah will rankle the Chinese government because China has plenty of markets for its graphite, including increased domestic electric vehicle production, Abuelsamid said.
China, though, is Tesla's biggest global market. It has a giant factory near Shanghai and sells about 450,000 vehicles per year there, compared with about 350,000 in the U.S., Abuelsamid said.
For the Australian mining firm, the deal is "crucial" because it has a non-Chinese purchaser for its graphite product, Moores said.
Syrah's graphite mine in Mozambique's northernmost province, Cabo Delgado, is one of the world's largest, with an ability to produce 350,000 tons of flake graphite a year.
Cabo Delgado has faced violence in recent years by Islamic extremists, an insurgency that has recently extended inland from coastal areas toward the neighboring Niassa province.
The mine is on the main road connecting the Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces, a thoroughfare that has been recently upgraded by a Chinese contractor. At a ceremony to reopen the road in December, President Filipe Nyusi called for vigilance so the road isn't used by insurgents.
------
Tom Krisher reported from Detroit.
Ontario is introducing a suite of measures that will crack down on cellphone use and vaping in schools.
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
Anyone who has a Gen-Z person in their life is likely familiar with the popular social media app TikTok, but a new bill in the U.S. may soon take it off of the American market.
U.S. President Joe Biden is out to win votes by scoring some laughs at the expense of Donald Trump, unleashing mockery with the goal of getting under the former president's thin skin and reminding the country of his blunders.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for a specific chocolate brand sold in Ontario and Quebec.
Quebec is investing $603 million over the next five years to counter what its French-language minister describes as the decline of the French language in the province.
One person has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a man who fell from a balcony following an altercation inside a Toronto apartment building.
Ukraine's troops have been forced to make a tactical retreat from three villages in the embattled east, the country's army chief said Sunday, warning of a worsening battlefield situation as Ukrainian forces wait for much-needed arms from a huge U.S. aid package to reach combat zones.
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”