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Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

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Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#191

Post by digging »

kccqzy wrote: post #127
linhns wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s very likely to go the way of oil. EV demand has slowed down recently (honestly I don’t believe the world is ready for mass adoption and EVs themselves are not ready also), so we’ll keep finding more and more and always beyond the consumption.

I hate the weasel words of "demands slowing down". It's always not clear what exactly is happening from this phrase. Is the production or sales going down year-over-year or quarter-over-quarter? Because that's what people think "demand slowing down" means. However what's actually happening is that demand is going up, but at a rate slower than before. Imagine that in 2022 demand increased by 60% YoY but in 2023 demand…

So the rate of change of demand is decreasing. Decreasing rate of change is the definition slowing down. Although I agree that most people probably misinterpret the phrase as you say. (It seems other replies have had that interpretation.)

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#192

Post by hatthew »

avar wrote: post #146
sheepdestroyer wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not taking the extreme and unprecedented rate of temperature change into account is either ignorance or disingenuity. https://xkcd.com/1732/ It's probable that very few species will be able to adapt to such an abrupt change.

The rate at which the temperature is changing is probably at historic highs, but both the current temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentrations are close to historic lows. See [1], that xkcd is picking a really biased starting point by using the last ice age as a baseline. Ice ages themselves being extreme abnormalities from the general historic trend. 1. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Global-Temperature-and-C.…

That xkcd is not demonstrating the amount of warming, it is demonstrating the velocity of warming. Historic temperatures on a time scale of millions of years are completely irrelevant to the current discussion of climate change, unless you think we have a chance to evolve into dinosaurs in the next few centuries (/s).

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#193

Post by cmcaleer »

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...

Important line from the article: "...but it is not yet clear how much can be exploited commercially".

This likely doesn't mean a straightforward +15M tons to the world's supply.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#194

Post by Aloisius »

Gravityloss wrote: post #141
kwhitefoot wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An EV doesn't have 50 kg of lithium. The 70 kWh battery in my Tesla S has about 12 kg of lithium.

Hmm the the first source I found said 60 kg but now found others saying a lot less like only 6 kg. https://electrek.co/2016/11/01/breakdown-raw-materials-tesla... https://elements.visualcapitalist.com/the-key-minerals-in-an...

The 63 kg number is lithium carbonate equivalent, not elemental lithium.

It originated from a Goldman report and they used it because lithium carbonate is what's traded.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#195

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#196

Post by earthling8118 »

aiauthoritydev wrote: post #147
dwighttk wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Production is not the same as existence

This is a very common misconception. Production is all that matters and existence is completely irrelevant independently. Production factors in existence and future expected existence. For example if any oil rich nation thinks oil going to run out they will hoard it for future so they can make money. But some get pedantic and ask "But isnt number of Oil molecules in earth finite?" Such pedantism can be easily blowm a…

While the resources are out there it's very feasible that we could become locked into a scenario where it is out of reach. I don't particularly care for letting the cost stop us from taking it from outside Earth, but the prerequisite for doing so is having enough energy available to accomplish the goal. Which is a path we could easily close off for ourselves.

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#198

Post by dang »

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.

(We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39058847. Nothing wrong with it but it's a bit of a tangent.)

Re: Thailand discovers nearly 15M tonnes of lithium

#200

Post by avgcorrection »

m00x wrote: post #116
NERD_ALERT wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 2019 Bolivian political crisis [1] came right off the heels of Evo Morales negotiating lithium trade with Russia and China. Bolivia happens to have the largest lithium reserves of any nation. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Bolivian_political_cris...

Good context, but not a geopolitical crisis, it was an internal civil conflict.

> Good context, but not a geopolitical crisis, it was an internal civil conflict.

Do you think clandestine services pursue their goals by declaring war on countries?

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