Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

malaymail.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 311 posts

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#91

Post by ajuc »

Night_Thastus wrote: post #46
maliker wrote: post #17

Looks like existing worldwide reserves are 26M tons [0], so this is a big find. [0] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-lithium.pd...

I think that true global reserves are much higher than what we know now. Before, Lithium was important, but not nearly in the quantities needed for EV's. Now that EV's have picked up, more people will be looking for Lithium, and that will make all the difference.

When you look at elements' abundance in Earth's crust lithium is about 50% more common than lead, but we mine 268 times more lead every year.

We just weren't looking very hard to find lithium compared to lead till very recently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abundance_of_elements_in_Earth...

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#92

Post by cinntaile »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #75
AdamH12113 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US oil production did, in fact, peak in 1970 and declined for decades afterward. Production only started to increase again about 15 years ago with the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=M... EDIT: To be clear, I am responding to a specific, narrow idea implied by the parent comment: that there was a prediction of peak oil in 1970, and that that predictio…

Yes. Think people have impression we are energy independent and Scot-free because of fracking. Really, fracking was a second chance. A reprieve. We'll just be behind 8-ball again if we don't take this reprieve and grow some other energy source.

Wind and solar are pretty nice and rapidly growing.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#93

Post by jlhawn »

setgree wrote: post #9

when valuable resources are scarce, people have an incentive to find and produce more of those resources. As Henry George put it: "Both the jayhawk and the man eat chickens, but the more jayhawks, the fewer chickens, while the more men, the more chickens" [0]. [0] https://www.econlib.org/archives/2009/12/the_gist_of_jul.htm...

that's an argument which works for capital goods (like livestock) but not for what Henry George considered to be natural opportunities of fixed supply like lithium ore (and land in general).

Henry George, if he were still alive today, would probably say that valuable raw mineral deposits like this would be more likely to be discovered and brought into productive use earlier if they were taxed. The argument being that people would have no reason to speculate on a large untapped reserve of it. There would still be an incentive to bring it into production because the earned profit would be made through extraction, processing, and distribution of the material even if the higher holding cost of the land is factored in as a cost.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#95

Post by Vecr »

whimsicalism wrote: post #87
marcosdumay wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reserves are only defined when you also state a price. It's not a free number. Those people are probably using different prices, and not communicating them.

What? These are denominated in tons, not dollars.

Tons economically extractable at that price.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#96

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

whimsicalism wrote: post #87
marcosdumay wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reserves are only defined when you also state a price. It's not a free number. Those people are probably using different prices, and not communicating them.

What? These are denominated in tons, not dollars.

The point is that reserves are only economically viable at a given price. At $0 there are 0 reserves because no one is willing to give you lithium. At $1 mil per kg, there is basically infinite reverses because you can do things like dig up the entire earth's crust and filter all the lithium out of it.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#97

Post by seaal »

kingkongjaffa wrote: post #50
drak0n1c wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Myanmar has the most bountiful gem mines in the world. I visited in 2019 and there were many shops with piles of ruby, jade, sapphire, even amber. They're already pretty specialized in mining and have little qualms about razing mining areas so would be able to take quick advantage - if their civil conflict allows.

> Myanmar has the most bountiful gem mines in the world. I assume that's hyperbole because I couldn't find a list of top producing countries that included Myanmar, do you have a link?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar#Extractive_industries

> Myanmar produces precious stones such as rubies, sapphires, pearls, and jade. Rubies are the biggest earner; 90% of the world's rubies come from the country, whose red stones are prized for their purity and hue.

The article that is cited is from 2010, seems like overall gem production has decreased significantly since then.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1061659/myanmar-producti...

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#99

Post by topspin »

maliker wrote: post #17

Looks like existing worldwide reserves are 26M tons [0], so this is a big find. [0] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-lithium.pd...

> so this is a big find

Plus it's far away from the environment, so recovery will be uncomplicated.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#100

Post by kfrzcode »

AdamH12113 wrote: post #69
oblio wrote: post #59

Oil is the standard example. I forgot what the exact peak oil production years were supposed to be, but they went something like this: In 1880 peak oil was expected to be 1910. In 1910 it was 1940. In 1940 it became 1970. Etc. Basically we kept finding more and more as technology and practical prospecting experience advanced.

US oil production did, in fact, peak in 1970 and declined for decades afterward. Production only started to increase again about 15 years ago with the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=M... EDIT: To be clear, I am responding to a specific, narrow idea implied by the parent comment: that there was a prediction of peak oil in 1970, and that that predictio…

Productions; what about reserves?
Post reply on HN