First Tellurium Corp. (CSE: FTEL, OTC: FSTTF), reports that Don Freschi of Fenix Advanced Materials, First Tellurium’s strategic partner for potential future tellurium extraction and purification, recently presented an update on development of Fenix’s solid-state, lithium-tellurium battery. Investors can view a video of Mr. Freschi’s video here.
Fenix is a producer of ultra-high purity metals, achieving purities of up to 99.99999% at its lab and plant in Trail, British Columbia. Metals produced by Fenix include tellurium, antimony, indium and cadmium.
Fenix continues to advance its lithium-tellurium (LiTe) solid-state battery (SSB) developed in partnership with UBC Okanagan (as reported March 2022 and Sep 2022). The Fenix SSB is expected to have a far higher charging capacity, much smaller size, and a battery life up to 400% that of lithium-ion batteries with no chance of catching fire.
“We had to make these batteries safe,” said Freschi in his presentation. “So we started playing around with tellurium, which started working well with a lithium anode. Then we focused on a tellurium-sulfur cathode because tellurium and lithium have the highest theoretical capacity for (electrical) storage. We’re making that system very safe.”
The number of lithium-ion battery-based fires is growing with enormous frequency worldwide. In Toronto, the number of lithium-ion battery fires nearly doubled in 2023, according to Toronto Fire Services. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 17, 2024 that In New York and other cities nationwide, fire departments are increasingly grappling with rapidly burning, toxic blazes ignited or exacerbated by lithium ion-batteries in everything from electric cars, bikes and scooters to cellphones, laptops, power tools and vape pens.
A recent apartment building fire in Harlem, New York that killed a young journalist was caused by a lithium-ion e-bike battery. The New York Times reported that it was the first death in New York City this year to be linked to the batteries, which were blamed for over 250 fires and 18 deaths in 2023.
“This is another key and developing part of the First Tellurium story,” said First Tellurium President and CEO Tyrone Docherty. “We are uniquely positioned amongst junior mining companies, not only because we are focused on tellurium, but also because we are becoming a tellurium-based technology company. In addition to the lithium-battery with Fenix, we are also bringing our tellurium-based thermoelectric generator to market and planning to supply tellurium to the solar industry.”
About First Tellurium Corp.
First Tellurium’s unique business model is to generate revenue and value through mineral discovery, project development, project generation and cooperative access to untapped mineral regions in Indigenous territory with sustainable exploration.
Our Klondike tellurium-gold property in Colorado and polymetallic Deer Horn Project in British Columbia anchor a diversified search for metals, working in alliance with Indigenous peoples, NGOs, governments and leading metals buyers. This is the future of mineral exploration: generating revenue by exploring responsibly and leveraging diverse partnerships.
