The two most common questions I field as an automotive journalist are “What car should I buy next?” and “What do you think about EVs?” Of course, a good car purchase takes into consideration lifestyle, budget, and taste—questions about electric vehicles, on the other hand, tend to go in one of two directions. The majority come from average consumers who truly want to know more and have, so far, never driven an EV. But a smaller subset of biased EV haters only want to know about electrification so they can add fuel to the fire of their V8 worshipping and conspiracy theorizing.
Of course, a wide range of considerations make any broad proclamations about the EV industry somewhat moot, so I generally tell people that now is the best time to have my job, since I get to experience the peak of internal combustion at the same time that EV technology already almost matches, or in some cases beats, fossil fuel use outright. But I harbor my own doubts about the feasibility of widespread EV production, the potential proliferation of charging networks, and the sustainability of a new technology that currently sits at an infant stage of development but will, inevitably and seemingly sooner than ever, grow into a massive giant too huge to handle.
So when Snow Lake Lithium recently offered me a chance to quiz CEO Philip Gross about a new lithium mine aiming to bring sustainability into the picture from the very first steps of EV battery production, I leapt at the chance to expand my own knowledge base so that I can more accurately answer one of the commonplace questions people ask me about EVs.
Snow Lake Lithium CEO Philip Gross
Gross told me his professional career spans the globe searching for natural resources across a wide range of markets, well before lithium-ion batteries looked likely to provide power for just about every EV on the market.
“Base metals, precious metals, some of the hydrocarbon agricultural products, anything commodity-related, natural resources, everywhere on the planet,” he said.
“Literally almost everywhere that you can imagine, whether it’s first world, second world, third world.”
About two years ago, he took a closer look at the EV industry and began speculating how the required materials for creating this new vehicle technology might transform the global commodities market. Almost immediately, Gross spotted a business opportunity.
“When you looked at it, even then, you discovered that there’s the greatest disconnect ever in the history of any market,” he explained. “You could look at Asia, you could look at other markets and see this is a consumer-driven phenomenon and it’s an unstoppable force. From my accountant sense, I saw North America, with 300 million vehicles: no ecosystem at all. Zero.”
Hold on, I said, incredulous. No lithium production of any kind in the United States?
Lithium Production At Home Versus Abroad
Not just in the US, Gross told me, but also in Canada so far.
“What people don’t realize is that in North America, the entire sum of the production of lithium today is actually zero,” he went on. “There is no lithium and lithium is the key element. Everything else, cobalt, nickel, all these things can be sourced. Or they could be actually replaced as a variable in the battery technology.”
Multiple emerging battery options that abandon the rarer earth elements, from solid-state polymers to lithium-sulfur options, may emerge in the near future. But for now, lithium looks like the go-to foundation for battery production.
“Lithium batteries were discovered, I think it was ’71 or something like that. And it’s taken 50 years to get to here where we are now, which is basically day one, really.”
Keeping in mind that gasoline-powered passenger vehicles as we know them now truly started proliferating only about 100 years ago, when Henry Ford pioneered production-line assembly methods, and lithium’s five decades of development sounds like a long time. But Gross sees the use of lithium-ion car batteries as a critical industry that US automakers widely overlooked until much more recently.
“OEMs just started, especially the past year or so, just started to roll out and make commitments,” he said. “A deficit in this market in North America puts us at huge existential risk for the future of the automobile industry because 85% of the world’s lithium is controlled by China. And China has a 10-year head start on North America in terms of lithium, in terms of batteries, in terms of automobiles. Out of the 6.6 million EVs sold last year, well over half of those were Chinese manufactured automobiles that most people have never heard of.”
Any conversation about the development of electric cars turns to future sustainability, so Gross readily admits that China’s commitment to an electric age represents a shift that most Americans also desire—even if some remain skeptical about battery technology and, without a doubt, the slowly dissipating facts about range anxiety.
“At the end of the day, I think electrification is not just inevitable, it’s good,” he said. “This is a great thing that’s happening in terms of our maturing consciousness of our environmental responsibility. This is the next step in industrial evolution to bring us to a more responsible state, as citizens of this planet.”
Snow Lake’s Historical Lithium Mine
Gross told me that early miners discovered the Snow Lake region’s lithium deposits almost a full century ago, while searching for metals deemed much more precious during the era.
“Back in the thirties, the prospectors discovered lithium on our property,” he explained. “They drilled it out over the decades, lots of people came and went, and it was an economic disappointment because they kept finding lithium but they were looking for gold. Nobody was interested in lithium. And it was only a few years ago when suddenly someone said, ‘Hey, you know, there’s lithium in them there hills!'”
The physical location of the lithium helps Gross predict that Snow Lake can usher in a new level of responsibility while providing such a critical component for Detroit automakers as demand continues increasing.
“We’re fortunate to be in Manitoba and Canada because it’s next door, geographically. The proximity to the US automobile industry is tremendous.”
Manitoba’s main power grid also employs mostly hydroelectric dams, which Gross says allows the Snow Lake Lithium mine to use electricity that already clocks in at 98% renewable.
“We believe very strongly, our philosophy is if you’re gonna be a part of this whole evolution into electrification,” he revealed, “And the ultimate ambition is to be environmentally sustainable, then your production has to align with that and your philosophy has to be those end goals.”
