Lithium
At the heart of every E.V (Electric Vehicle), is a high-performance rechargeable battery. While there are several types, the lithium-ion battery has become the clear favourite for performance and durability. So, with the skyrocketing demand for EVs comes an equal demand for batteries thus, Lithium needs to produce.
Lithium supply easily satisfies the demand, but over the coming decade, demand will probably flip as demand increases tenfold. The result is that both the U.S. and the world need to ramp up lithium production to satisfy the growing demand for EVs.
Lithium Reserves
The good news is that there is an abundance of Lithium to be mined here and around the globe. Presently, the U.S. has substantial reserves; reliable estimates say as much as 10% of the world’s total resources. The exact amount is still unproven but has only one large-scale mine producing less than 2% of the world’s Lithium. Australia, Chile, South America, and China produce most of the world’s Lithium.
Companies in the U.S. and universally have mastered lithium extraction techniques and are constantly improving capability and worker safety. Obtaining Lithium is not the problem.
Challenge
The challenge is that lithium production needs moving large quantities of dirt and rocks and consuming millions of gallons of water to take out this precious resource. In this process, often aimless local ecosystems, threatened endangered species, and disturbed nearby communities.
Developing new Lithium needed a delicate balancing act. We need Lithium to produce EVs and thus address climate change. At the same time, activists, vehicle buyers, automakers, and investors want mining to occur without causing environmental or community problems.
Lithium Mining in Africa
According to the British Geological Survey, there was just one operating lithium mine in Africa. This hard-rock mine is in Zimbabwe, Bikita.
“Many African countries (particularly Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mali) have lithium resources and the ability for lithium mines,” according to the BGS report. Furthermore, it indicated that several African lithium mining projects, all hard rock, were at several points in the exploration and development stage.
Shortly, it would be a positive for BYD to gain one or more sources of Lithium. Doing so might enable the company to de-risk its supply chain and better ensure that it has sufficient metal to meet its future production goals.
Future of Lithium Mining
In 2015, three li-ion mega factories were in the pipeline, with a total capacity of 57-gigawatt hours. As of 2018, there are 33 massive factories to be finished by 2023. The entire capacity of these factories will be around 430 GWh globally. Each 20 GWh capacity added needed up to 16 thousand tons of Lithium. The industry continues to address energy density development and raw materials management.
Moreover, there are many new junior players, along with the next lower-cost lithium producers, through alternatively new technology or strategic approach.
A big part of this growth has to do with regional environmental goals. Once, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported that sales of new energy vehicles would reach 2 million by 2020 and report for more than 20% of total vehicle making and sales by 2025. Additionally, to support the Paris Climate Agreement, India is making a bold vow to start selling only electric vehicles by 2030 and ban internal combustion engine vehicles.
Increase in Lithium Requirements
Average battery sizes are growing, meaning growing lithium requirements.
It’s possible to quantify these benefits. EVs represent significantly avoided CO2 emissions. Even without reduction or elimination of the carbon output from the grid.
Although, in the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario, decarbonization of the power grid would more than double the well-to-wheel (assessment of the environmental collision of an E.V. throughout its lifespan) CO2 emissions reductions from the electrification of transport.
Hardships of Lithium Mining
The process of mining lithium is lengthy, difficult, and can have many drawbacks. For starters, the extraction process depends on the state of the alkali metal. If the Lithium is in solid ore form, a series of explosion and drilling techniques loosen, fragment, and split the element from the other four minerals; it is compounded.
But suppose the Lithium is contained within a salt brine. In that case, it is pumped from underground lakes to outdoor above-ground evaporation pools where the exposure to the sun, wind, and other natural forces evaporate water and leave salt ions, including lithium chloride. These contrasting lithium states and extraction methods lead to contrasting processing methods.
Lithium Crushing
Once lithium ore is extracted, it is crushed and roasted to form a more usable powder. This powder is then exposed to several chemical processes that remove additional compounds not sought after, leaving a lithium carbonate of 99% purity.
Moreover, brine-rooted Lithium further separates salt ions once the presence of 6000 parts per million of lithium chloride is detected. To add to the complexity of the mining process, industry extraction and processing times vary by up to two years. The exact methods that extraction facilities follow differ among mines.
Slavery in Lithium Mining
In Modern Slavery, the actual cost of cobalt and lithium mining Hermes details the cruelty at the sharp end of the cobalt mining grant chain in the DRC. Children work up to 12 hours a day for only $2. To make matters inferior, miners, along with children, face continual risk and are ripened for exploitation,’ note the report’s authors.
‘They work in miserable conditions that are very dangerous to their health, often with no safety tools or protective clothing. They are bare to a near-invisible poison, cobalt dust, which can produce fatal hard metal lung disease. Rainfall can produce large areas of cobalt mines to collapse suddenly.’
Lithium Mining Vs. Oil Drilling
No, it is not more detrimental to the environment than oil drilling. Lithium mining is much less detrimental to the environment than oil drilling.
Lithium is a very clean metal that does not produce harmful emissions when mined. Oil drilling, on the other hand, produces harmful emissions that can damage the environment and contribute to climate change. Additionally, Lithium can be reused multiple times. Whereas oil cannot be reused once extracted from the ground. This makes Lithium a much more sustainable resource than oil.
Which Country Holds the Maximum Reserves of Lithium?
On that note, here’s a survey of lithium reserves by country, focusing on the four countries that maintain the most Lithium. Data is built on the most recent information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Chile
Chile was the second biggest lithium producer last year at 18,000 metric tons (M.T.), but it has the most reserves worldwide by a large amount.
The country presumably holds most of the world’s “economically extractable” lithium reserves, and its Salar de Atacama hosts approximately 37% of its lithium reserve base. SQM (NSYE: SQM) is an essential lithium producer in Chile’s Salar de Atacama. In 2018 it finally held out a long-awaited deal with Corfo, Chile’s development agency, over authorities.
Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) is another topmost lithium producer in Chile. Although short-term instability, the company is cheerful about long-term lithium demand.
Australia
Australia was the largest lithium-producing country worldwide in 2020. It is second in a phrase of reserves.
The country is home to the lithium forecast. Being Lithium producers Tianqi Lithium and Albemarle nickel-gold miner IGO Ltd own “Talison Lithium operates” . The project is the longest continuously operating mining area. In operation for over 25 years. Greenbushes have been the subject of multiple expansions taking place recently.
Argentina
Argentina is the fourth huge lithium producer in the world. It also ranks 3rd in lithium reserves worldwide, at 1,900,000 MT.
It’s value noting that Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia comprise the “Lithium Triangle”. which organizes more than half of the world’s lithium reserves. The Argentinian government latterly committed to investing up to US$1 billion in its lithium industry to increase annual lithium production.
China
China carries lithium reserves of 1,500,000 MT. it produced 14,000 MT of the mineral. That is a 3,200 MT growth in production from the previous year. The Asian nation still imports exceedingly the Lithium it requires from Australia but increasing domestic production may end this reliance.
China’s lithium utilization is high due to its electronics and electric vehicle industries. It also produces nearly two-third of the worldwide lithium-ion batteries and holds most of its lithium-processing potential.
After Lithium is taken out from lithium deposits, it often processes into a lithium compound. Generally, lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, and then is utilized in lithium-ion batteries.
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