Kirill Klip: Do Robots Use Lithium Batteries? Hungry Humanoid Robots Running Wild on FSD: Will They Eat All Available Lithium by 2030?

Sunday 20 October 2024

Do Robots Use Lithium Batteries? Hungry Humanoid Robots Running Wild on FSD: Will They Eat All Available Lithium by 2030?

Humanoid Robots are taking over headlines and YouTube videos. And they do use Lithium batteries. Lithium batteries are the top choice for humanoid Robot energy systems thanks to several key advantages. One of the most important is the high energy density of Lithium batteries and that the same advanced energy systems used in electric cars can be adapted to power humanoid Robots.

"Tesla is moving fast with Optimus to bring us new companions and friends. Our giant Mariana Lithium Project is approaching the official start of commercial production this year and generating the NSR Royalty cash for TNR Gold shareholders."

This video from Tesla's "We, Robot" event demonstrates the remarkable progress Tesla made in advancing Optimus. Even if these Robots were not fully autonomous during their demonstrations and a lot of functions were teleoperated, we can see the best design of a humanoid Robot and its hardware in action.

We have another very significant segment of Lithium demand in the making. Somebody has to take care of all those millions of hungry robots starving for Lithium in the not-so-distant future and who can make it better than our NSR Royalty partner Ganfeng Lithium?

"In short, the AI threat is real and hungry Robots running wild on FSD in your neighbourhood and rifling through your garbage for old Lithium batteries can become a reality much faster than a lot of people think..."

The latest generation of Optimus GEN III uses a 2.3 kWh, 52-volt Lithium battery with an energy density of 300 Wh/kg. I believe that Solid-State Lithium batteries will be used in future generations of humanoid Robots, these batteries can provide a much higher energy density of 400 Wh/kg now.

“Ganfeng's second-generation hybrid solid-state lithium batteries use lithium metal as the anode and can reach an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, the company said." (CnEVPost)

"For all TNR Gold shareholders, it will be very interesting to note here that Lithium Chloride is the preferred Lithium chemical composition to convert into Lithium metal. Now we can put all recent developments at the Mariana Lithium Project into the perspective of this new battery technology."

Ganfeng Lithium finished summer in style decisively announcing to the international markets that its share price is coming back to life. Industry insiders were not surprised by Mr Market's attention following the successful development of the giant Lithium projects in Argentina.

You can watch one of the rare video interviews of Ganfeng's top executive and explore the company's strategy to secure lithium resources around the world. Wang Xioshen discusses the state of the lithium and electric vehicle markets. We can learn how Ganfeng is getting ready to supply 600,000 T LCE annually by 2030.

Electric vehicle sales head for another record this year. Now Bloomberg NEF estimates that EV sales could reach 16.7 million units this year. It will be a very respectable growth of 20% from 2023 numbers.

Today we are only starting to talk about Energy Storage Systems being implemented on a scale which allows us to move really fast forward into decentralised Energy Generation based on Solar and Wind. Elon Musk and his Team presented Tesla's Master Plan Part 3 for a sustainable plentiful future on Earth.

All investors in our Lithium Universe must watch his video from Tesla Investor Day very carefully. Elon Musk presented the most important - the Tesla Team and the incredible progress achieved by this Team in creating "Machines Building Machines".

Electric vehicles will continue to be the main driver for Lithium demand, with Energy Storage growing exponentially and making very fast an important additional share of that demand in the near future.

Humanoid Robots will become a very significant market as well and Goldman Sachs is expecting it to reach $38 billion by 2035. Elon Musk has much higher expectations and is talking about 8 billion people on Earth and that fleet of humanoid Robots will exceed this number in the future.

Due to the technical complexity, only the strongest Lithium companies will be able to develop new projects and achieve a significant production increase of Battery Grade Lithium. The whole industry produced 960,000 T LCE of Lithium in 2023 and now we have to jump to over 3 million T LCE per year by 2030. Ganfeng's Chairman is talking about 3 million T LCE annual demand by 2030 and Canaccord Genuity estimated that only Tesla will consume 2.7 million T LCE annually by 2030.

Discussing the projections for Lithium demand, we should mention the latest estimate from Albemarle as well, the largest Lithium producer in the world. They are estimating a demand of 3.3 million T of LCE annually by 2030.

Now, "One Thousand and One" Lithium dreams of junior miners are gone again, and only the strongest professional players can cross the desert. The problem with all estimations for the future supply in mining is the difficulty of the process of putting new mining operations in place, particularly in a sustainable way.

In the case of Lithium, we are dealing not only with mining operations but with literal "chemical soup", particularly in the case of Lithium Brine Operations. Every single project has a unique chemistry. Only a few companies in the world were able to put online successful Lithium operations.

This is where science meets Wall Street and Bay Street hype. Lithium projects are always delayed, they are never on budget and only a few companies managed to organise operations to reach the previously announced annual capacity production of Battery Grade Lithium.

Investors must remember that a lot of "Lithium companies" have only the word Lithium in their name, but not any real Lithium resources which can be produced economically in the next 10 years. The flood of money following the new Lithium all-time high of over USD$85,000 in China last year was chasing Bay Street Lithium Dragons all over the junior mining space.

Talking about our Company, we have another set of positive news coming to all TNR Gold shareholders from the 13th International Seminar on Lithium in South America, organized in Jujuy by Panorama Minero. President of Ganfeng's subsidiary Litio Minera Argentina S.A., Jason Luo has confirmed that "the production phase will begin at the end of 2024".

We are building The Green Energy Metals Royalty and Gold Company. TNR Gold is plugged into Tesla Energy rEVolution with our Royalty Holdings on the Mariana Lithium Project with Ganfeng Lithium, Los Azules Copper, Gold and Silver Project with McEwen Mining and Batidero I and II Properties of Josemaria Copper-Gold Project with Lundin mining.

On the links below you can find more information about TNR Gold's Royalty portfolio, potential valuations of TNR Gold's NSR Royalties and how the Mariana Lithium Project is moving into the production phase in Argentina.