The elements of power, p.49
The Elements of Power, page 49
“Alex bought a lot”: South African mine engineer, interview with the author, September 2019.
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A Gertler company soon acquired: “After Criminal Complaint by Public Eye: Glencore Convicted Following Corrupt Mine Deals in the DRC,” Public Eye, accessed August 22, 2024. www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/commodities-trading/after-criminal-complaint-by-public-eye-glencore-convicted-following-corrupt-mine-deals-in-the-drc.
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another Hamze company: Clara Ferreira-Marques and Jonny Hogg, “Glencore Takes Control of Mutanda with $480 Million Deal,” Reuters, May 22, 2012.
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the merger was: “Fleurette and Glencore Complete Merger of Mutanda and Kansuki Mining Operations,” Fleurette Group, PR Newswire, July 25, 2013, prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/fleurette-and-glencore-complete-merger-of-mutanda-and-kansuki-mining-operations-216882041.html.
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having lost family money: Former Glencore Official, author interview, February 2022. “We diluted the shit out of him,” the former Glencore official told me. “In the end of the day, Dan didn’t make that much money in Katanga.” The official noted that Gertler was complaining of losing $200 million of his family’s money on the deal. Neither Gertler nor his family members would speak to me for this book.
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He built a hospital and a park: Bazano, “Response to the Article Published by PREMICONGO on the Subject Mining Exploitation, Environmental Management, and Social Responsibility of Mining Companies in Katanga,” January 2013, 3–5, congomines.org/system/attachments/assets/000/000/477/original/MINING-in-DRC-Response-of-GROUPE-BAZANO-to-the-report-of-PREMICONGO-January-2013.FV_.English-1.pdf?1430928905.
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care who he was: Melissa Sanderson, interview with the author, August 2023.
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Maltese planning applications: The Government of Malta, The Malta Government Gazette no. 20,866, May 25, 2022, 8692, gov.mt/en/Government/DOI/Government%20Gazette/Documents/2022/05/Government%20Gazette%20-%2025th%20May%20PA.pdf.
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“I saw him out one night”: U.S. official, conversation with the author, April 2024.
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spies had fought hard: See Susan Williams, Spies in the Congo: America’s Atomic Mission in World War II (PublicAffairs, 2016).
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Chapter 25: A New Cathode
“Lithium-ion is the reason”: Larry Edsall, Chevrolet Volt: Charging into the Future (Motorbooks, 2010), 49.
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Osaka City University: Charles Murray, Long Hard Road: The Lithium-Ion Battery and the Electric Car (Purdue University Press, 2022), 192.
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researchers at the Argonne: That story, and the subsequent development of an even more powerful type of NMC battery, is told in detail in The Powerhouse, an excellent 2015 book by Steve Levine.
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tetrahedron-shaped ion arrangements: Steve Levine, The Powerhouse: America, China, and the Great Battery War (Penguin Books, 2015), 31–32.
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When Thackeray first suggested: “Battery Heroes: Michael Thackeray,” Batteries International, April 28, 2015, batteriesinternational.com/2015/04/28/michael-thackeray.
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“may have commercial significance”: Michael M. Thackeray, Running with Lithium—Empowering the Earth: A Personal Journey (Archway Publishing, 2019), 60.
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“a blizzard to pale”: Thackeray, Running with Lithium, 86.
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team threw together: Michael M. Thackeray et al., Lithium Metal Oxide Electrodes for Lithium Cells and Batteries, U.S. Patent 6,677,082 B2, filed June 21, 2001, and issued January 13, 2004, patents.google.com/patent/US6677082B2/en; and “IMLB X—Lithium 2000,” Tenth International Meeting on Lithium Batteries, May 28–June 2, 2000.
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a longer cycle life: Seth Fletcher, “GM’s New Battery Chemistry? It’s Already in the Chevy Volt,” Popular Science, January 7, 2011, popsci.com/cars/article/2011-01/gms-new-battery-chemistry-its-already-chevy-volt/.
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“superior” cathode material: Levine, Powerhouse, 45.
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position of chief scientist: Shirley Meng, interview with the author, May 2020.
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administration was “gambling away”: Deepa Seetharaman and Ayesha Rascoe, “Battery Maker A123 Systems Files for Bankruptcy,” Reuters, October 12, 2012.
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CPI was positioning: Bill Cooke, “Profile: Li-ion Provider Compact Power, Inc. Focusing on the Automotive and Vehicle Markets,” Green Car Congress, February 17, 2019, greencarcongress.com/2009/02/profile-li-ion.html [inactive].
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Compact Power had also: “Governor Granholm Joins President Obama in Celebrating New Advanced Battery Manufacturing Plant in West Michigan,” Michigan.gov, July 15, 2010, michigan.gov/formergovernors/recent/granholm/press-releases/2010/07/15/joins-president-obama-in-celebrating-new-advanced-battery-manufacturing-plant-in-west-michigan.
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“stability and resistance”: “Governor Granholm Joins President Obama in Celebrating New Advanced Battery Manufacturing Plant in West Michigan.”
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Jon Lauckner noted: Fletcher, “GM’s New Battery Chemistry?”
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NMC battery output: Jörn Jürgens, “This Is Why NCM Is the Preferable Cathode for Li-ion Batteries,” LG Energy Solution, August 29, 2019, lghomebatteryblog.eu/en/this-is-why-ncm-is-the-preferable-cathode-material-for-li-ion-batteries/.
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Goodenough’s original LCO: “Batteries and Electric Vehicles,” Cobalt Institute, cobaltinstitute.org/essential-cobalt-2/powering-the-green-economy/batteries-electric-vehicles/. For the percentages of cobalt in batteries, there are various forms of NMC available today. NMC111 (or NMC333) contains 33 percent nickel, 33 percent manganese, and 33 percent cobalt. NMC532 has 50 percent nickel, 30 percent manganese, and 20 percent. NMC811, the most advanced form of the material available at the time of this writing, has 80 percent nickel, 10 percent manganese, and 10 percent cobalt. See, for example, J. J. Hocken, “Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC),” Runaway Review, April 17, 2023, mitsubishicritical.com/resources/blog/the-runaway-review/lithium-nickel-manganese-cobalt/; and “Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LiCoO2) Powder,” Ossila, ossila.com/products/lithium-cobalt-oxide-powder.
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costliest material used in cathodes: Vehicle Technologies Office, “FOTW #1228: Cobalt Is the Most Expensive Material Used in Lithium-ion Battery Cathodes,” U.S. Department of Energy, March 7, 2022, energy.gov/eere/vehicles/articles/fotw-1228-march-7-2022-cobalt-most-expensive-material-used-lithium-ion.
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also pointed out cobalt’s: M. Stanley Whittingham, interview with the author, February 2020.
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took to calling NMC: Sourav Mallick et al., “Low-Cobalt Active Cathode Materials for High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries: Synthesis and Performance Enhancement Methods,” Journal of Materials Chemistry A 11 (2023): 3789.
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“it was scientists at Argonne”: Argonne scientist, interview with the author, September 2022.
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still had many advantages: Nadim Maluf, “LCO, LFP, NMC…Cryptic Lives of the Cathode,” Qnovo, December 6, 2014, qnovo.com/blogs/lco-lfp-nmc-cryptic-lives-of-the-cathode.
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Chapter 26: Nickel from the Forest
Chinese magazine Caijing: “Tsingshan’s Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park: Build, and They Will Come,” Caijing, no. 30 (2019), archived March 12, 2023, at web.archive.org/web/20230325135815/business.hsbc.com.cn/en-gb/campaigns/belt-and-road/story-5.
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town of Falconbridge: Maya Bilbao, “The Hidden History of Thomas Edison in Canada,” Northern Ontario Travel, January 13, 2022, northernontario.travel/sudbury/thomas-edison-sudbury-ontario. Edison’s quest for nickel also would have connections to Congo: The company that did manage to discover nickel in the area, Falconbridge, was later acquired by Xstrata, which later merged with Glencore, the owner of two of the biggest Congolese copper-and-cobalt mines. Another firm that tried to acquire Falconbridge was the International Nickel Corporation, INCO, which provided Robert Friedland with his first “big score,” a nickel bonanza at Voisey’s Bay. One of Friedland’s most successful projects in recent years is Kamoa-Kakula, a giant copper mine near Kolwezi in Congo. See Jacquie McNish, The Big Score: Robert Friedland, INCO, and the Voisey’s Bay Hustle (Doubleday Canada, 1998).
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“Indonesia’s nickel strategy”: Isabelle Huber, Indonesia’s Nickel Industrial Strategy (Center for Strategic and International Studies, December 2021), csis.org/analysis/indonesias-nickel-industrial-strategy.
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“We will control the world”: Wilda Asmarini and Fergus Jensen, “Construction on $4B Indonesia EV Battery Project Begins Jan 2019—Minister,” Reuters, November 30, 2018.
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nickel laterite production: Divya Karyza, “Luhut Launches Integrated EV Battery Plant in Morowali,” Jakarta Post, September 27, 2022.
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Indonesia had become the largest: Harry Dempsey and Mercedes Ruehl, “Indonesia Considers OPEC-Style Cartel for Battery Metals,” Financial Times, October 31, 2022.
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dramatic spine of mountains: Yuri Choi et al., “Geochemical and Mineralogical Characteristics of Garnierite from the Morowali Ni-Laterite Deposit in Sulawesi, Indonesia,” Frontiers in Earth Science 9 (November 2021): 48. When Mount Soputan erupted in 2018, ash was thrown four thousand meters into the sky. See “Indonesia Rocked by Volcanic Eruption After Devastating Sulawesi Quake,” Bloomberg, October 3, 2018.
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Connecticut was grafted: Choi et al., “Geochemical and Mineralogical Characteristics.”
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The limonite can be worked: Gustaw Konopka et al., “Ni-Co Bearing Laterites from Halmahera Island (Indonesia),” Applied Sciences 12 (2022): 7586.
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various energy-intensive processes: “Smeltering,” Economist, October 26, 2024.
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Indonesia overtook Australia: Harry Dempsey, “Indonesia Emerges as World’s Second-Largest Cobalt Producer,” Financial Times, May 9, 2023.
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clearly many differences: In recent years, notably, David van Reybrouck, a historian and one of the most elegant contemporary chroniclers of Congo’s history, has turned his attention to Indonesia’s colonial story. It is perhaps a testament to how little Indonesia appears on the radar of the English-speaking world that van Reybrouck’s powerful study of Indonesian history, Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World (2020), was only translated into English after four years. Of course, to those seeking minerals there, the country is front and center of consciousness.
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exploited for at least: Theo M. van Leeuwen and P. E. Pieters, “Mineral Deposits of Sulawesi,” paper presented at the Proceedings of the Sulawesi Mineral Resources 2011 Seminar MGEI-IAGI, November 28–29, 2011, 7.
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marked by significant brutality: In 2020, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands apologized for “excessive violence” during the colonial epoch, and in 2022, Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, apologized for his country’s role in slavery. “Dutch King Apologizes for ‘Excessive Violence’ in Colonial Indonesia,” Reuters, March 10, 2020; and Jon Henley, “Dutch PM Apologises for Netherlands’ Role in Slave Trade,” Guardian, December 19, 2022.
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Dutch geologists realized: E. C. Abendanon, as cited in Han Van Gorsel, “Geological Investigations of Sulawesi (Celebes) Before 1930,” Berita Sedimentologi [Indonesian Journal of Sedimentary Geology] 48, no. 1 (2022): 91.
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the Japanese invaded: Van Leeuwen and Pieters, “Mineral Deposits of Sulawesi,” 8.
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Indonesia became independent: Vincent Bevins, The Jakarta Method (PublicAffairs, 2020).
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a consortium headed: “Our History in Indonesia,” Vale, vale.com/indonesia/our-history-in-indonesia. Researchers from the Canadian NGO Mining Watch reported in 2000 that researchers linked to INCO may have been searching for nickel there as early as 1964, in contravention of the Sukarno-era laws.
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Bahodopi’s nickel laterite: “INCO in Indonesia: A Report for Canadian People,” Mining Watch, January 7, 2000, miningwatch.ca/blog/2000/1/7/inco-indonesia-report-canadian-people.
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“a top producer of cathode”: “Materials Business,” Sumitomo Metal Mining, www.smm.co.jp/en/business/material/.
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the company displaced locals: “INCO in Indonesia”; and Kathryn M. Robinson, Stepchildren of Progress: The Political Economy of Development in an Indonesian Mining Town (State University of New York Press, 1986), 178.
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“People lost their livelihoods”: Richard Kent, interview with the author, November 2024.
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As a popular protest: See, for example, Emily Harwell, Without Remedy: Human Rights Abuse and Indonesia’s Pulp and Paper Industry (Human Rights Watch, January 2003), part IV, hrw.org/report/2003/01/06/without-remedy/human-rights-abuse-and-indonesias-pulp-and-paper-industry.
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perhaps tens of millions: Numbers of transmigrants are difficult to come by, but census data from 2010 estimated that there were more than five million transmigrants in Indonesia. See Statistics Indonesia, 2010, “National Census,” Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS), archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240911102329/https://sensus.bps.go.id/topik/tabular/sp2010/31/0/0.
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Chapter 27: Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones
“I was born and raised”: Peter Zhou, interview with the author, May 2020.
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“has become a rival power”: Ray Dalio, Principles (Avid Reader Press, 2021), 13.
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hit a major industrial milestone: Fang Yan and Jason Subler, “China Tops Global Auto Market in 2009, Challenges Ahead,” Reuters, January 11, 2010.
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In the year after: Jonathan Watts, “Beijing Keeps Olympic Restrictions on Cars After Air Quality Improves,” Guardian, April 9, 2009.
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a former auto engineer: Zeyi Yang, “How Did China Come to Dominate the World of Electric Cars?,” MIT Technology Review, February 21, 2023.
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fewer than five hundred: Yang, “How Did China Come to Dominate the World of Electric Cars?”
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provide individual subsidies: Yang, “How Did China Come to Dominate the World of Electric Cars?”
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“more affordable batteries built here”: Tad Friend, “Plugged In,” New Yorker, August 17, 2009.
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Obama administration’s American Recovery: Ayesha Rascoe, “Battery Maker A123 Got U.S. Funds as It Sought Bankruptcy,” Reuters, November 16, 2012. Among the companies that received the largest tranches of funding was A123, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The other leading firm, Johnson Controls, spun off its battery division to a private equity fund in 2019.
