How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
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Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#2The flipside of electrification of vehicles is all the extra metal they need to mine, which is highly environmentally destructive.
We don't even have the metal supplies to fully electrify car production, not even close, although I see South America is going to ramp up production substantially soon.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#3The flipside of electrification of vehicles is all the extra metal they need to mine, which is highly environmentally destructive. We don't even have the metal supplies to fully electrify car production, not even close, although I see South America is going to ramp up production substantially soon.
Afghanistan has something like $1T worth of lithium reserves. Who gets access and how it ends up being exploited remains to be seen but that country is not going to become some forgotten backwater anytime soon.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#4Australia sure has a lot of empty land. Must be something down in there.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#5Rare earth mineral and lithium extraction is going to be the greatest disaster the world has ever seen because ocean floors will be plundered - the damage to the planet whether at sea or on land will be unprecedented.
It is surreal how naive people are about both this plus the huge lithium batteries high temperature fire risks and associated high voltage electrocution.
There is a reason we went from high pressure steam power to a lower pressure oil and gas based economy after the Victorian era.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#6The flipside of electrification of vehicles is all the extra metal they need to mine, which is highly environmentally destructive. We don't even have the metal supplies to fully electrify car production, not even close, although I see South America is going to ramp up production substantially soon.
Localised environmental destruction is such a pittance compared to global environmental catastrophe that its comical people even bring it up.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#7Australia is like the Saudi Arabia of mining. Such a big continent with very few people. Politically stable and smart enough to exploit itself and keep most of the profits. The lucky country indeed.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#8This is a surprisingly comprehensive and well-written article, worth reading. For example, the authors note that the majority of Australia's lithium ore is refined to metal in China, although there's a push for local Australian refining. For more details on the current state of lithium battery production globally, this is good:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31850-y
(Jul 2022) "Tracing the origin of lithium in Li-ion batteries using lithium isotopes", Desaulty et al.
This in particular is interesting, using a blockchain to track sourcing:
> "Major car manufacturers like BMW group, Tesla, and Volvo recently announced that they will increase the transparency of their supply chains for EV batteries, and ensure responsible and sustainable sourcing of raw materials. Some companies (BASF, Volkswagen, Fairphone) have started a partnership for sustainable lithium mining in Chile. Carmakers also explore the usefulness of blockchains for improving the scrutiny of supply chains. A blockchain is the control of chain-of-custody systems, based on the shipping documentation that is included in online databases, to allow real-time raw materials tracking and electronic tagging. However, document-based traceability systems can be falsified, and must be independently controlled and audited to provide credibility."
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#9The flipside of electrification of vehicles is all the extra metal they need to mine, which is highly environmentally destructive. We don't even have the metal supplies to fully electrify car production, not even close, although I see South America is going to ramp up production substantially soon.
Afghanistan has something like $1T worth of lithium reserves. Who gets access and how it ends up being exploited remains to be seen but that country is not going to become some forgotten backwater anytime soon.
Afghanistan is landlocked. To its north is Russia. To its east is China. To its south are Pakistan and India. And to its west is Iran.
Fun neighborhood. Nothing could go wrong with the above countries fighting for their share of Afghanistan's mineral resources.
Re: How Australia became the world’s greatest lithium supplier
#10Australia sure has a lot of empty land. Must be something down in there.
Terra Nullius right cobber