How North Dakota’s Coal Country turns out to be a good fit for helping make electric vehicle batteries

FARGO — The North Dakota coal business would possibly look like an unbelievable associate for the business that makes supplies for batteries for the quickly rising electrical automobile market.

However that odd-couple marriage of a legacy fossil fuels business and the rising sector of low carbon-emission electrical automobiles helps clarify why

Talon Metals selected a web site in Mercer County in North Dakota Coal Nation

for a processing plant to make battery supplies.

One of many key causes the positioning in Mercer County emerged on the prime of the checklist was its prepared entry to tons of fly ash residue produced when coal is burned to generate electrical energy.

North Dakota’s coal-burning energy vegetation produce greater than 3 million tons per yr of fly ash, which is often utilized in making cement however in any other case have to be correctly disposed of, in accordance with the U.S. Division of Power.

As an example, the previous Coal Creek Station, now referred to as Rainbow Power Middle, produces greater than 500,000 tons of fly ash per yr, a lot of which is utilized by ready-mix corporations across the state to make concrete for paving roads and different makes use of.

It seems that the identical attributes that make coal ash useful for making concrete — its high-quality particles make the concrete denser, bettering workability, power and sturdiness — additionally make it useful in disposing of waste created by processing nickel ore to be used in batteries, mentioned Todd Malan, chief of exterior affairs and head of local weather technique for Talon Metals, which is predicated in Toronto.

Mixing the coal ash with nickel sulfide waste helps neutralize the waste air pollution, hardening it very similar to concrete, making it extra environmentally secure, he instructed The Discussion board Editorial Board.

Water waste from processing will evaporate, and the residue, combined with fly ash, will meet state and federal environmental requirements, Malan mentioned.

One other benefit of the Mercer County web site is that it’s positioned on an present “brownfield” industrial web site. Talon hasn’t but disclosed the positioning, which is beneath negotiations. Pending state and federal regulatory approvals, the corporate hopes to start development on the plant subsequent yr.

Talon Metals will take ore from the Tamarack mine in Aitkin County, Minnesota, west of Duluth, and ship it by rail to the positioning in Mercer County, the place Talon will construct a $433 million processing plant that can make use of 150 staff.

Most of the plant’s staff will earn $100,000 to $125,000 per yr, plus advantages, Malan mentioned. Most of the positions might be “fairly technical” and might be “high-quality, career-type jobs,” he mentioned.

Talon Metals has a contract to produce Tesla, a number one producer of electrical automobiles, with supplies for batteries. Ore from its mines has excessive concentrations of nickel, copper and cobalt.

Due to North Dakota’s availability of coal ash and its enticing enterprise setting, Talon Metals believes Tesla might be excited by finding a plant of its personal within the state and is prepared to function a matchmaker for the state by making introductions, Malan mentioned.

“We had such an incredible engagement with the state of North Dakota,” he mentioned. “You possibly can see a creating battery provide chain inside the state of North Dakota.”

Talon is conscious, for instance, of analysis to get well uncommon earth minerals from lignite coal deposits in North Dakota, and different work is exploring extracting lithium, utilized in making batteries, from the brine, or “produced water,” ensuing from oil and gasoline improvement, Malan mentioned.

Now, all the lithium iron phosphate utilized in batteries comes from China, and the federal authorities is offering incentives to construct a home provide chain, mentioned Tom Oakland, vitality analysis and enterprise improvement supervisor for the North Dakota Division of Commerce.

Researchers additionally are attempting to develop methods to get well lithium and different uncommon earth minerals from soil and earth, but it surely’s a problem, Oakland mentioned. “The issue is the quantity, the components per million, is small,” he mentioned.

The coal-fired energy vegetation additionally present electrical energy to cost electrical automobile batteries, one other approach the 2 industries assist each other, Malan and Oakland mentioned.

Talon’s ore-processing plant will draw consideration from different corporations to the progressive prospects in North Dakota, Oakland mentioned.

“It’s going to set off a variety of concepts from different companies, different industries,” he mentioned. “I’ve little doubt there might be extra curiosity within the state with this undertaking.”

Talon Metals obtained a $114 million cost-share grant from the U.S. Division of Power for the Mercer County undertaking. Talon has an settlement with the U.S. Steelworkers Union, which can pay half of the coaching prices for the plant’s staff.

The corporate is also in talks with North Dakota’s American Indian tribes to offer staff and enterprise associations, Malan mentioned. “We’re even open to fairness stakes with tribal governments in North Dakota or Minnesota,” he mentioned.

The purpose is to supply battery-grade supplies for Tesla by the tip of 2026, if not sooner, Malan mentioned.