As the world begins to shift away from carbon-based energy and toward renewable energy, new investment opportunities are emerging alongside advancements in electric vehicle (EV) battery technology.
Aleksandra O’Donovan, BloombergNEF’s head of EVs, said the firm expects that “(a)ll of those trends will continue paving the way for further growth in 2025 and 2026, when a slew of cheaper models is set to hit Western markets.”
Against that backdrop, many market watchers are interested in the battery metals that are making the energy transition possible. While lithium and cobalt are the best-known battery materials, graphite, vanadium and manganese are also key materials for this sector. Read on for a quick go-to guide on the battery metals sector.
Lithium is the lightest metal and the least-dense element that’s solid at room temperature. Despite being difficult to follow in terms of pricing, it has skyrocketed in investor interest in recent years due to its role in lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electronic devices such as cell phones, laptops and, of course, EVs.
In fact, the EV sector has been a major demand driver for the silver-white metal. Automakers are expected to continue to look for ways to lock down long-term supply of lithium and other important materials used in EV batteries, while investment in the sector continues to be key to ensure global output can keep up with expected demand.
Cobalt, which is mostly mined as a copper and nickel by-product, also plays an important role in lithium-ion batteries. In addition to batteries, this hard, silver-gray metal is used in alloys for jet engines and turbines, along with magnetic steels.
The biggest contributor to cobalt supply is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which holds more than half of all global cobalt reserves. In 2023, the DRC produced 170,000 metric tons (MT) of cobalt, with Indonesia following at a very distant second with 17,000 MT; Russia and Australia took the third and fourth spots, respectively.
A native element mineral that’s the most stable form of carbon, graphite is known to be a dry lubricant. As the only non-metal element that’s a good conductor of electricity, it can be used in lithium-ion batteries, as well as in nuclear reactors and the refractory and steel industries.
Vanadium is predominantly mined as a by-product of other metals and is found in deposits of siltstone, uraniferous sandstone, phosphate rock and titaniferous magnetite. It can also be found in bauxite, coal and crude oil.
In 2023, China took the top spot as the world’s biggest vanadium producer at 68,000 MT, with Russia and South Africa coming in second and third at production rates of 20,000 MT and 9,100 MT, respectively.
A brittle, hard, gray-white metal, manganese has a similar appearance to iron and can be used in the production of various items, including dry cell batteries, aluminum cans and even fungicides and pesticides.
This is an updated version of an article first published by the Investing News Network in 2018.
Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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