Criticality assessment of minerals associated with China's battery technologies

Abstract

Power batteries require mineral resources such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, iron, graphite, and manganese. However, the analysis of the key mineral criticality scores related to China's battery industry is limited. To provide a reference for the research and development as well as the design of battery technologies from a criticality assessment perspective, this study employs indicators such as Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, World Governance Indicators, the innovation factors, and others to construct a criticality assessment framework for evaluating the critical situations of nine minerals and eighteen battery technologies in China. The key findings include: LiFePO4 exhibited the lowest criticality score among lithium-ion batteries. Considering energy density, some sodium-ion batteries posed higher criticality scores compared to lithium batteries. To reduce criticality scores from the perspective of battery materials, at least two other high-score materials required attention, apart from lithium-sulfur batteries. Supply concentration was the most crucial indicator among the five criticality indicators for lithium and cobalt, showing an overall increasing trend. Economic importance consistently remained at 100 for nickel, iron, aluminum, and manganese.