Cover: Spodumene, LiAl(SiO3)2, Locality: Urucum mine (Tim mine; Córrego do Urucum pegmatite), Galiléia, Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil Size: miniature, 4 x 2.3 x 1.9 cmSpodumene var. Kunzite This is a fine, small Kunzite specimen. The color is a nice pink uniform throughout the crystal, the luster and gemminess are superb, and, to add interest, the crystal is twinned. An excellent aesthetic miniature. And totally gemmy. Ex. Wendell E. Wilson Collection. Robert M. Lavinsky Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 March 2010. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Maurício Pinheiro
They say that traffic in my city, Belo Horizonte, is one of the worst in the country. It’s hard to understand why, since they also say that the people from Minas Gerais, despite being suspicious, are also polite and hospitable. Perhaps, to help us understand this apparent paradox, we should remember “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Robert Louis Stevenson knew what he was talking about, and I believe that deep down, many Belo Horizonte residents turn into a Mr. Hyde when behind the wheel (even without using drugs). They are rude, and I wonder how they obtained a driver’s license. They don’t use their turn signals, they don’t signal when slowing down to stop, they change lanes without considering who is coming in the other lane, they park in prohibited areas, and commit many other infractions.
And the motorcyclists… They are just about to run over your car, and when, by fate’s irony or another Mr. Hyde’s doing, you are forced to stop, blocking their way, they go crazy and start hurling insults. Poor innocent mothers. Like a bunch of lunatics, our drivers are always searching for their vital space, even if it means crashing their cars, running over a distracted teenager crossing the street without looking while checking their Instagram, or even knocking over your favorite iFood delivery guy.
But this can change. Perhaps by the end of the decade, our wheel-bound Mr. Hydes will be replaced by efficient and polite artificial intelligence controlling the steering wheel, accelerator, radio, and air conditioning of the car. Well, this article is not yet about autonomous cars, but the idea here is to report evidence that this technology is closer than we imagine, and it probably comes partly from Brazil and partly from China…
Ernst D. Dickmanns. January 1, 1994. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors has purchased the Mercedes-Benz factory in Iracemápolis (SP) and will start its activities in the country selling and exclusively assembling hybrid vehicles. In addition, the Caoa Chery group is already manufacturing hybrid models in Anápolis (GO) and is preparing to produce electric vehicles at its factory in Jacareí. Furthermore, news circulating on the network for a few weeks leads us to believe that a Chinese company (BYD) will buy Ford’s factory in Camaçari, Bahia. The trip of our President to China, canceled due to a last-minute pneumonia, had this topic on the agenda: electric cars produced in Brazil for export. Is China joining the globalization trend? Perhaps. But not because of cheap labor, after all, we all know how expensive it is in Brazil, but because of natural resources.
LITHIUM-ION CR2032 BATTERY CHINA VERSION By Dinkun Chen
September 17, 2022.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
By BruceBlaus.
January 27, 2016.
Source: Wikimedia commons.
The issue runs deeper and is related to an element on the periodic table with atomic number 3, which is very abundant in spodumene and pegmatitic feldspars in northeastern Minas Gerais. These pegmatites were seen by me with my own eyes during a geological expedition I did in the late 90s in the Jequitinhonha Valley, MG. Can you guess? It’s lithium. And why? Because of batteries, a fundamental component in electric and hybrid cars. The same lithium that is in the battery of your smartphone, laptop, that spy drone, and even your e-cigarette, etc. It’s worth noting that these same pegmatites are rich in a myriad of gemological minerals, columbite, and tantalite. But let’s leave that aside since we are not talking about Niobium or Tantalum… But rather the tiny Lithium.
Our reserves are impressive and have been explored for decades by national companies, such as Companhia Brasileira do Lítio. There is a buzz that some partners of these companies are moving to exercise their right to purchase and increase their shareholding, anticipating big changes. And this is even after the price of Li has reached a level in the global market.
It is expected that the batteries for these electric cars will also be produced here in Brazil, possibly by Chinese companies. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with that. What will happen is that the specialized workforce, which at the Ford factory was mostly from São Paulo and Minas Gerais, as an Uber driver who worked there told me, will be replaced by Chinese.
We have to adapt. This is not bad, but it is the natural evolution of the new globalization. I wrote about it and recommended a Netflix documentary (“American Factory“) that reveals how integration between the West and the Far East can happen, regardless of cultural problems, creating an exchange of ideas capable of extracting the best from all sides.
It will be necessary to wait to know if there will be the manufacture of autonomous cars, in addition to electric ones. If that happens, we could see a significant improvement in our traffic life in Belo Horizonte in the medium term.
More in… Brazilian media:
https://canaltech.com.br/carros/byd-confirma-producao-de-carros-hibridos-flex-no-brasil-260532/
https://autopapo.uol.com.br/noticia/chineses-industria-nacional-carros-eletricos/
https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/25/real-driverless-cars-legal-in-chinas-shenzhen/
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