Lithium: The demand for the world's critical mineral is set to soar
The world's carmakers are exploring mining companies in search of lithium and other metal reserves that could make or break their business as they move from fuel to battery power. In recent years, the
In this aerial view, brine pools containing lithium carbonate and mounds of salt stretch through a lithium mine in the Atacama Desert, Chile. Natural brine is pumped from under vast salt flats to a series of evaporation ponds. During an 18-month process, natural brine is moved through evaporation ponds, eventually turning from dark blue to bright yellow with a lithium concentration of 6 p
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A battery-powered F-150 Lightning truck under production at Ford Motor Co. Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan, on September 20, 2022.Lithium"s availability, limited to a few geographic locations on earth, has led to supply chain vulnerabilities and even disruption of supplies. Even established mining companies are grappling with demand for lithium as EV sales soar. As a r
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General Motors is investing $650 million in Lithium Americas, a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, to develop the remote Thacker Pass mine (above) in Nevada. It"s estimated that by 2034, the US alone will need 500,000 metric tons of unrefined lithium a year for EV production. Bypassing traditional suppliers, the US and European carmakers are making direct deals, committing bill
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A file photo of a bottle of processed lithium carbonate&mdasha main component in manufacturing batteries. Turning mined lithium ore into the purer lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide needed for batteries is an expensive and complex operation. China controls at least 65 percent of the world"s lithium processing and refining capacity, giving it a stranglehold on the battery market. Howev
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Aerial view of a mining site and a parking area in the Salinas Grandes in Jujuy, Argentina. China is trying to increase its access to lithium. Chinese mining companies&mdashGanfeng, Suzhou TA&A, Sinomine and BYD&mdashhave all taken steps to acquire lithium mining rights in South America and Africa. Ganfeng Lithium, which supplies Tesla, acquired the mining group Lithea, giving it rights t
Image by MartÃn SILVA / AFP
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Employees work on the production line of an electric vehicle battery manufacturing unit in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. Hundreds of gigafactories across China are churning out millions of EV batteries for both the domestic market and for foreign carmakers like BMW, Volkswagen, and Tesla. Six of the ten biggest EV battery producers are based in China&mdashone of them, CATL, makes three ou
Image by Aly Song / Reuters
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Miners and supporters march with flags and mining helmets during a rally supporting the left-leaning Bolivian government. Bolivia and Argentina have the largest lithium reserves, at 21 million tonnes and 20 million tonnes, respectively. However, there are risks in dealing with mining businesses in politically unstable countries with weak environmental protections. Local support is one of
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The deep-sea mining vessel Hidden Gem near the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone in the Pacific Ocean. Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the ocean below 200 metres -the deep seabed, which covers around two-thirds of the total seafloor. The International Seabed Authority, a United Nations body, struggles to get its members to agree on a framework of regulati
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A file photo of Reasi, 75 km northwest of Jammu. Months after India found its first-ever lithium reserve of 5.9 million tonnes of lithium ore in Jammu and Kashmir"s Reasi district in February this year, another reserve of the crucial mineral has been found in Rajasthan"s Nagaur district. These reserves" discovery may help reduce India"s dependency on China for lithium. India"s plan to inc
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A man charges an electric vehicle at the charging hub of Indian ride-hailing BluSmart Electric Mobility in Gurugram, India, December 9, 2022. The global lithium-ion battery market was valued at $52 billion in 2022 and is estimated to reach $194 billion in 2030. The World Bank estimates that the production of minerals will need to increase by nearly 500 percent by 2050 to meet the growing
