Dear all,

Reducing their dependence on China’s critical minerals pushes the USA and Europe to find new sources both at home (US manganese mining - Mining.com, Canada rare earth processing - Argus media - and new Imerys lithium mine in France - Reuters) and while developing so called "friend shoring" (German and Mongolia - Mining Weekly or EU and Namibia - Times LIVE). A breakthrough new magnetic alloy that could become a substitute for rare earths elements (Cambridge University) and feedback from the 121 Conference in Sidney to make the energy transition happen (Mining.com) are also highlighted this month.

Great news from the scientific front as well: new process for magnet wastes recycling (Idaho National Laboratory), less expensive catalyst by platinum alloying (Chinese Academy of Science on EurekAlert!), innovative lithium-sulfur battery technology at Monash University (Wiley Online), two quantum computer breakthroughs, one in Australia (UNSW Sydney) and one at QuTech in the Netherlands (Physics World), on-site reactor for CO2 conversion (University of Waterloo) and finally, lowered charging time solution at Penn State University (IEEE Spectrum).

Regarding sustainability initiatives, we have selected a project to replace a coal power plant in Chile with salt-based energy storage, a PNNL analysis of potential synergy of geothermal energy & lithium extraction, a Norwegian survey on the importance of solar energy in reducing Europe's dependency on Russia, an article by the New York Times on how to recycle a 14 stores office tower, a review of progress made on recycling mixed plastics at NREL and a proposal to combine open science and better data to avoid a water crisis in Bangladesh.

Also 17 of our Start Up alumni were in the news this month with some significant funding rounds (Anthro Energy - USA, Nitricity - USA), key partnerships announced or ongoing (Aerosint - Belgium with Exponential Technologies, Bcomp - Switzerland with Polestar, Cyclopure - USA with the city of Newburyport, Nitricity - USA with the IFDC, Sylvatex - USA with Forge Nano, UbiQD - USA with SICPA), some awards (FREDsense Technologies - USA, Intropic Materials -USA), and many interesting press articles as usual (BeFC - France, Brimstone Energy - USA, Carbios - France, Electrified Thermal Solutions - USA, Graphene MG - Australia, Nawa Technologies - France, Sakowin - France, UBQ Materials - Israel).

As always, we hope that you enjoy the reading.

The WMF Editorial Team.
Victoire de Margerie, Sélène Ciancioni & Valentin Desbuis

Mining.com, October 3rd: 
EV demand sparks revival of US Manganese mining after decades 

Argus Media, October 7th: 
Canada's rare earth processing hub prepares to ramp up

Mining.com, October 12th: 
Feedback from the 121 Conference in Sidney about making the energy transition happen 

Mining Weekly, October 17th: 
Germany looks to Mongolia in push for critical raw materials

Times LIVE, October 21st: 
Namibia - EU progressing on rare earth supply deal 

Reuters, October 24th: 
Imerys unveils major Europe lithium mine project in France

Cambridge University, October 25th: 
New iron nickel alloy to substitute rare earths for permanent magnets applications 

Idaho National Laboratory, September 29th: 
Commercial refrigerant shows promise for metal recycling in magnet wastes

UNSW Sydney, September 30th:
Quantum computing engineers from UNSW Sydney set new standard in silicon chip performance

Wiley Online, October 6th:
Progress at Monash University on Lithium Sulfur Batteries as Energy Storage Technology

University of Waterloo, October 6th: 
On-site reactors could affordably turn CO2 into valuable chemicals

EurekAlert!, October 11th: 
A catalyst alloying platinum with REE could slash fuel cell costs 

IEEE Spectrum, October 19th: 
Lower charging times thanks to adding a thin sheet of nickel inside EV batteries at Penn State University

Physics World, October 19th: 
Record performance for a quantum processor at QuTech in the Netherlands

New York Times, October 6th: 
How to recycle a 14-story building 

Nature, October 13th: 
Progress on recycling mixed plastics at NREL

Renewables Now, October 18th: 
Plans to replace coal power plant in Chile with 560W molten salt-based energy storage

TechXplore, October 21st: 
Lithium extraction and geothermal energy have the potential to be a great dynamic duo according to PNNL researchers

EV Wind, October 25th: 
Solar power as the fastest way to reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas according to Norvegian Statskraft

Nature, October 26th: 
Open science and better data to avoid water crisis in Bangladesh 

Aerosint (N 2017), October 4th:
Aerosint and Exponential Technologies have developed with machine learning very efficient parameter sets for multi-material laser powder bed fusion 

Anthro Energy (N 2021), October 19th: 
Anthro Raises $7.2M in Seed Funding to Shape the Future of Energy Storage

Bcomp (N 2018), October 12th: 
Polestar 3, the first production road car featuring Bcomp materials is now available for order

Bcomp (N 2018), October 28th: 
Bcomp mentioned in this Drive.au article   

BeFC (N 2022), October 20th: 
Interview with Dr Jules Hammond, Co-Founder & CEO of BeFC by EasyEngineering

BeFC (N 2022), October 3rd: 
BeFC in VivaTech's list of 5 game-changing green energy startups

Brimstone Energy (Grand Prix 2020), October 22nd: 
The U.S. State Department announced it will feature Brimstone at COP27 along with a selected group of innovative U.S. companies tackling hard-to-abate industrial sectors. 

Carbios (Grand Prix Scale Up 2021), October 20th: 
Carbios’ Biotechnologies Recognized by Consumers as the Most Promising Solutions Helping to Solve the Plastic Pollution Issue

Cyclopure (N 2020), October 14th: 
Cyclopure partners with the city of Newburyport, MA for a water treatment pilot to reduce micropollutants

Electrified Thermal Solutions (Prix Coup de Coeur 2021), October 3rd: 
ETS listed as one of the 8 ideas for environmental impact from the MIT Startup Exchange

FREDsense Technologies (N 2019), October 25th: 
FREDsense wins Foresight Canada and United Utilities water quality innovation challenge

Graphene Manufacturing Group (N 2020), October 11th:
Graphene Manufacturing Group announces battery, cell and graphene production improvements

Graphene Manufacturing Group (N 2020), October 27th: Graphene MG mentioned in this article on how graphene could help meet Net Zero goals

Intropic Materials (N 2022), October 19th: 
Intropic highlighted as runner-up of this year's TechCrunch Startup Battlefield

NAWA Technologies (N 2019), October 20th: 
NAWA Technologies invited to a discussion panel on MobilityTV about batteries in 2035

Nitricity (Grand Prix 2021), October 18th: 
Renewable nitrogen fertilizer pioneer Nitricity raises $20 million in Series A funding

Nitricity (Grand Prix 2021), October 24th: 
Nitricity and International Fertilizer Development Center partner to Reduce GHG Emissions from Fertilizer Production and Application

Sakowin (N 2022), October 3rd: 
Sakowin mentioned in this La Tribune article about local production of hydrogen (FR)

Sylvatex (Prix Coup de Coeur 2022), October 6th: 
Future-proofing Li-ion Battery Production With Waterless Cathode Manufacturing Process developed by Sylvatex

Sylvatex (Prix Coup de Coeur 2022), October 14th: 
Forge Nano and Sylvatex collaborate on next-generation cathode active materials

UbiQD (N 2020), October 12th: 
UbiQD, SICPA Develop QD-Based Anti-Counterfeit Security Inks

UBQ Materials (N 2021), October 23rd: 
How does UBQ Materials transform food waste into a bio-based thermoplastic? Answer in a video by the Israel Innovation Authority 

worldmaterialsforum.com