Lithium is quite common. Problem is minign it without totally destroying local environment!
Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
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Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
#12Does this mean other elements like cobalt are becoming the bigger bottleneck in battery production? The US found a large lithium reserve in Nevada not long ago; or to be clear a large reserve that they can now more affordably extract. As another commenter said its not that rare, just wasn't cheap to extract before.
LFP batteries don't use cobalt.
Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone from Myanmar, this piques my interest
It's the new oil, so I would be careful. Democracy and camaraderie and all those greater good things tend to come where the cheap resources are.
Countries can suffer Dutch disease just fine without ever seeing a single Marine.
Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
#14If Thailand has it, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia probably do too. Edit: After checking on a map, probably Myanmar/Malaysia.
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.
Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
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Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
#16[flagged]
Lese Majeste has nothing to do with this news. Every country has problems.
Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
#17Looks like existing worldwide reserves are 26M tons [0], so this is a big find.
[0] https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023-lithium.pd...
Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
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Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium
#19There is important lesson to learn from here.
Everybody who claims that there is not enough some mineral for something must consider the following. First in every moment in time there are certain number of mineral resources - these are known deposits that are not all necessarily accessible economically, but some of them are - these are reserves.
If the demand for something increases then also the price will increase, making more of the resources available as usable reserves at the new price point. At the same time it increases the incentives to find even more new resources.
More over, if there is certain amount of mineral already in circulation then it may suddenly become economically viable to recycle it, limiting the demand for new resources.
What is important to observe instead is if the increase in production can follow the increase in demand and if the resources grow at such speed that the growth can continue.
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/lithium-electric-v...