Mr. Larry Reaugh reports
BOEING 787 DREAMLINER LITHIUM ION BATTERIES BASED ON COBALT
NOT MANGANESE
American Manganese Inc. has received numerous shareholder queries and calls regarding the type of
lithiated ion battery used by the Boeing Dreamliner 787 which resulted in battery fires and
grounding by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Green Car Report states lithium ion batteries are a family of products having very different
performance characteristics resulting from incorporating specific alloying metals into the
battery chemistry. Lithium plus manganese or/and nickel (or other metals) typically carry
less energy per volume than lithium plus cobalt, but are widely viewed as less susceptible to
overheating. The battery chemistry utilized by the Dreamliner was lithium cobalt dioxide
(LiCoO2); similar to that used in laptop computers and cellphones. American Manganese's product would be lithium manganese dioxide (LiMn2O4), or spinel, similar to
rechargeable batteries used in the Chevy Volt. Both of these battery chemistries come under
the generic heading "lithium ion batteries."
American Manganese's focus has been to produce high-purity electrolytic manganese dioxide or
chemical manganese dioxide for the rechargeable lithium manganese battery
industry using its patent-pending process. Bloomberg Business Week reports short
circuits caused by rogue metal particals in the battery material that may cause shorts once in
a very long time.
Norm Chow, PEng, president and chief executive officer of Kemetco Research Inc., says:
"While researchers have made significant advances in materials used to improve performance
of the lithium ion batteries, often overlooked are the importance of mining processes to
produce raw materials which are later refined to battery-grade materials. A critical issue is
that conventional mining processes introduce metallic impurities in raw materials. These
metallic impurities are known to cause internal short circuits resulting in thermal runaway,
which bypasses protection circuits implemented for safety. This unfortunately leads to
explosions and fires in some cases. The tolerances for these impurities are so low that there
are no known methods to reliably test their presence.
"In 2012, American Manganese was the only mining company that presented at the Battery
2012 conference in Denver, Colo., and is currently one of the leaders developing mining
technology for improved raw materials for lithium ion batteries. American Manganese has
made significant progress in advancing their hydrometallurgical process to make these
critical raw materials by avoiding steps that are known to introduce metallic impurities.
Prototype batteries have been produced and R&D will be advancing to the next stage."
Currently American Manganese is seeking strategic partnerships and research and development grants to
further efforts on producing cleaner high-purity products to supply the lithium ion battery
market.
This release has been reviewed by John W. Fisher, PEng, a qualified person pursuant to
National Instrument 43-101.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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