Green EV Batteries From Indonesia (Is This a Joke?) with Chris Gower of Altilium

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The Holy Grail of electric-vehicle production is a nickel battery derived from a genuinely green process, from mining through hydrometallurgy to handling residual tailings.  Indonesia holds the bulk of the world's nickel -- but its current and planned projects for refining ore into battery-grade material (or 'MHP') are anything but green.  These use conventional high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL), which entails high costs, acidic gases, and vast tailings.  Indonesia's current trajectory points to the exclusion of its battery material from key markets (EU, US, et al) where regulators and consumers will demand high standards.  But at least one company, Altilium, offers something completely different: an economical way to process ore into MHP -- with over 95 percent acid recycling and zero leftover tailings.  Paired with renewable energy, the prospect exists for carbon-neutral battery production.  Could it work, at scale?  In this episode of Reformasi Dispatch, Jakarta-based Altilium CEO and Monty Python aficionado Chris Gower responds to our (Spanish) inquisition.

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