Battery Minerals, Battery Metals, but what about Battery Materials?

Everyone is talking about batteries these days, and the metals that we need to manufacture them. But in fact what they often mean is that we need battery minerals in order to make the metals. And then of course there are the materials that are required to manufacture the batteries. This line of thinking has led to a new understanding of what we actually need to make batteries, and is known as the M4 concept (minerals, metals, materials, manufactured products). 

This comes with challenges, as now geologists, mineralogists, material scientists and product engineers all need to communicate with each other, in order to source, process, produce and recycle batteries. But unexpected discoveries have been the result. Under-utilized and sometimes forgotten technologies have suddenly started to become mainstream as the need for characterization of battery minerals moves at a pace. For example, Raman, LIBS, FTIR and hyperspectral imaging techniques are finding applications where previously not tested, and can now be used on lithium, graphite, cobalt, and nickel ores with great effect. Isotopes are particularly useful for establishing the provenance (traceability) of the minerals, with unusual systems such as lithium- and copper-isotopes showing much promise. All these developments suggests that the study of critical minerals is a vibrant and highly-evolving area of research and commercial activity, providing a much-needed boost to the Green Energy Transition, a more sustainable use of earth resources, and a bright future for all those involved.

All these aspects will be explored in what will be a fascinating keynote lecture from Prof. Alan Butcher at Critical Minerals '24 in Cape Town in November next year. Alan will also be much involved with Process Mineralogy '14 which immediately precedes it.

Alan R Butcher is Chief Scientist & Technical Director of Origin Analytical Ltd and X-ray Mineral Services Ltd., part of the Hafren Scientific Group, based in the UK. He is specifically focussing on critical minerals, specifically those related to the Green Energy revolution, Zero Waste practices, and the Circular Economy in general. One aspect of his work is the cross-disciplinary characterisation of minerals, metals and materials that are required for batteries, with an emphasis on novel imaging and analysis techniques, which bridge both scientific and engineering aspects. Alan is a geologist with over 40 years of experience in the field of applied mineralogy, having previously worked in the UK, South Africa, Australia, The Netherlands, and most recently Finland. Alan is also a Visiting Professor of Geoinspired Utilisation of Planetary Materials at The Open University, UK, where is researching how to bring Space technologies down to Earth.

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