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On Lithium

Dec 31, 2014
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“Despite expectations that lithium demand will rise from approximately 500,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2021 to some three million to four million metric tons in 2030, we believe that the lithium industry will be able to provide enough product to supply the burgeoning lithium-ion battery industry. Alongside increasing the conventional lithium supply, which is expected to expand by over 300 percent between 2021 and 2030, direct lithium extraction (DLE) and direct lithium to product (DLP) can be the driving forces behind the industry’s ability to respond more swiftly to soaring demand. Although DLE and DLP technologies are still in their infancy and subject to volatility given the industry’s “hockey stick”1 demand growth and lead times, they offer significant promise of increasing supply, reducing the industry’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) footprint, and lowering costs, with already announced capacity contributing to around 10 percent of the 2030 lithium supply, as well as to other less advanced projects in the pipeline.”
 
Going to enjoy seeing how all the hardcore environmentalists take the news that new mining and brine operations are going to be needed to meet these goals. We currently have one operational Li mine in the US and all others are stalled out. Seems to be a lot of NIMBY going on, with a healthy dose of "who's water are we using?". Hey, it's not like the western US has any sort of water issues or anything, so that's good.

Good luck. Better hope we're more popular in Latin America than China for the foreseeable future. At least the Ausies hate them.


svgz-lithium-mining-ex3.svgz


Currently, almost all lithium mining occurs in Australia, Latin America, and China (accounting for a combined 98 percent of production in 2020). An announced pipeline of projects will likely introduce new players and geographies to the lithium-mining map, including Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). This reported capacity base should be enough for supply to grow at a 20 percent annual rate to reach over 2.7 million metric tons of LCE by 2030 (Exhibit 3).
 
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