Lithium mining: Accelerating the transition to sustainable energy

Abstract

In the actual context of climate change threats, lithium batteries fulfil lot of expectations in order to achieve a cleaner and more sustainable solution for transports, embodied by electric vehicles. According to different studies that identified a noticeable discrepancy between consumption and production, undersupply should be expected until 2045 in the European Union. Thus, ensuring lithium supply for the growth of energy-sustainable industrialised countries is crucial, and different approaches should be undertaken as for the purpose of technological transition, time matters.This paper focuses in analysing lithium prices and their expected evolution. It also studies in deep five ready-to-go lithium mining investment projects worldwide: Whabouchi Project in Canada, Keliber Project in Finland, Cauchari-Olaroz Salars Project in Argentina, Sonora Project in Mexico, and Pilgangoora Project in Australia. The main purpose being to provide an exhaustive analysis of lithium mining investment in order to facilitate the development of preliminary economic assessments of future mining projects, fighting again supply disruption and accelerating the transition to sustainable energy. Conclusionsstate in first place that prices are expected to return to a more stable behaviour, mainly based on a ramping up of the production by miners, as there are sufficient lithium recoverable resources in order to ensure the demand of future electric vehicles. Moreover, recycling of lithium batteries will represent a significant supply for the future.In second place, an order of magnitude both technical and economic of this mining industry is given. Two aspects can be highlighted: (1) it was possible to establish a linear correlation between the capital expense of the lithium mining investment projects and their expected production of lithium carbonate; and (2) continental brine deposits, where the extraction of lithium is conducted by evaporation processes in man-made ponds, will not represent a push out of the market for the lithium extracted from hard rocks and clays using conventional mining methods as they have almost the same operating costs.