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| sigh.... sigh ...Is BlackRock acquiring Albemarle shares to corner the Kings Mountain lithium mine? | |
| 2024-10-12 | |
[X]
… September 24 - Albemarle submitted State and Federal Permits for Kings Mountain, North Carolina lithium mining. ⚠️ September 24 - Albemarle received $250 million in grants from the departments of Defense and Energy to boost lithium production. ⚠️ September 27 - Hurricane Helene hits North Carolina with ravaging floods and total devastation. ⚠️ Local homeowners were protesting against the mining in North Carolina. Their homes and properties were destroyed. ⚠️ Chile is one of Albemarle's other prime mining locations. Open Source: NC mines stir conspiracy theories I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina. …In separate mine news, the government is not seizing private property in Chimney Rock, North Carolina, to build a lithium mine. Several people on social media have tied the ongoing permitting process for lithium mining in Kings Mountain (50 miles away) to a supposed land grab in storm-affected Chimney Rock, which local and state officials assure isn’t happening.
Facts: The government is not seizing land in Chimney Rock to obtain lithium. On Oct. 8, Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, who represents Western North Carolina, released a statement debunking several Hurricane Helene myths. His first fact-check focused on a prominent rumor about lithium and a small Rutherford County town that was devastated by the storm. “Local officials have confirmed the government is NOT seizing Chimney Rock,” Edwards wrote. “There was no ‘special meeting’ held in Chimney Rock between federal, state or local governments about seizing the town.” False news of lithium inspiring a government land grab spread in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on X, Facebook, and TikTok. “Lithium, that’s why they’re doing it,” is how one person opens her TikTok video, which has since garnered 20,600 likes. Some of the posts referred to an Oct. 2 public meeting during which officials supposedly discussed seizing private property after rushing waters leveled most of Chimney Rock’s Main Street. The next day, Rutherford County Emergency Management offered clarification on Facebook, stating, “These claims are entirely false.” The department said town officials had met with state, county, and federal leaders on Oct. 2 about coordinating support after Helene. Lithium is not currently mined in North Carolina, but two companies want to start digging for it. In 2015, a Charlotte-based resource company called Albemarle purchased a former lithium mine about 30 mile west of Charlotte in the small city of Kings Mountain. Albemarle currently operates the only active U.S. lithium mine, in Silver Peak, Nevada, but the dormant Kings Mountain mine could eclipse Silver Peak’s output by a factor of 10. A different Charlotte-area lithium company, Piedmont Lithium, is lobbying to dig a brand new mine in Kings Mountain. Lightweight with a high-voltage capacity, lithium is an ideal component in electric vehicle batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are also crucial to cell phones, laptops, cameras, toys, medical devices, and other electronics. In North Carolina, a series of forthcoming lithium projects has positioned the state as a key player in the emerging “EV battery belt” forming across the Southeast United States. In late September, Albemarle submitted permits to the state and federal governments in its pursuit to restart the Kings Mountain mine (which is currently a 163-foot-deep lake). The company submitted these permits days before Helene passed over Western North Carolina, and some noted this chronology in posts about a Chimney Rock land grab. More than 50 miles separate Chimney Rock and Kings Mountain. As it tries to reopen the mine, Albemarle currently refines imported lithium at its Kings Mountain facility. In a statement to The News & Observer on Wednesday, the company said this plant “did sustain a period of power loss from Hurricane Helene; however the site facilities were not otherwise impacted.” The site has since resumed normal operations, the company said. Related: BlackRock 09/25/2024 Ryan Wesley Routh faces new charge of attempted assassination of Trump after initial gun rap; son arrested for possessing child pr0n BlackRock 09/20/2024 The ‘Next AI Trade’ Plays Out: Microsoft And BlackRock Join Forces On $30 Billion AI Infrastructure Fund BlackRock 09/19/2024 Trump assassination plots expose FBI, Secret Service vulnerabilities and failures Related: Albemarle 06/08/2024 Mistrial declared for torch wielder at at Charlottesville ‘white nationalist’ rally Albemarle 05/27/2024 Murder Beach, S.C. follies Albemarle 04/20/2023 Torch-carrying marchers indicted over 2017 Charlottesville rally | |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #4 I'm no fan of Blackrock but other than that I'm not sure I see the problem here. Is mining lithium any worse than mining uranium or even coal for that matter? Is it worse than drilling oil wells? Should we let the Chinese corner the market on lithium and use slaves to mine it? I dunno. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2024-10-12 12:13 |
| #3 ^ Some have. My experience with the Tubbs fire is that getting back to property is a long process. Just getting to the property through several N Guard security checkpoints was tedious. Don't get me going on going through govt bureaus to try to get anything done. |
| Posted by: Rex Mundi 2024-10-12 10:07 |
| #2 As some have asked and pointed out. The way the Fed's are handling the WNC emergency and disaster, has many similarities to the Hawaii Fire. Did those owners ever get to take back control of their properties again? |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2024-10-12 06:03 |
| #1 There is so damned much lithium waiting to be mined in Argentina and Chile that betting on its future is a mixed bag. |
| Posted by: S MAI 2024-10-12 04:30 |