Lithium is powering the current generation of batteries. And with ambitious global targets in response to human-induced climate change, our collective need for lithium will only increase in years to come. With that in mind, we take a look at where lithium is mined, and why the United States currently has a lithium supply issue at hand.
In recent years, almost every car manufacturer has announced that they will be transitioning to electric vehicles. Tesla alone delivered just short of one million cars in 2021, and newly established companies like Lucid and Rivian are seated firmly at the table. But if we’re to keep up with the new demand for electric vehicles, we need to ensure our lithium stocks can manage.
By 2030, it’s anticipated that electric vehicle growth will be responsible for in excess of 90% of the world’s lithium. But consider the fact that lithium is present in our phones, computers, pharmaceuticals, and a range of other devices, and you will begin to see that we have a potential problem on our hands. Lithium is also instrumental in our solar and wind energy storage ambitions, as both sources of renewable energy become more prevalent in the near future.
As a result of our reliance on lithium and the way the world is turning, some people have started referring to it as white golf. After all, it’s a critical element of so many industries, and we would be well and truly lost without it. The price of lithium has increased by 280% since the start of 2021, and many commentators are suggesting that creating a domestic supply of lithium is akin to the security that oil has provided in recent decades.
At the start of this article, we alluded to the fact that the US has a lithium problem, and it’s true – just 1% of the lithium being mined in the world today comes from the United States. Chile, Australia, and China account for more than 80% of the world’s lithium processing and refining, with the vast majority of lithium mega factories in China. This is an interesting turn of events, as up until the 1990s, the US was the global leader in lithium production.
Something else that’s puzzling is that lithium is far from scarce. The US alone has approximately 8 million metric tonnes of lithium ion reserve, which makes it one of the top five lithium reserves in the world. So, why is there just one mine operating in the US – that at Albemarle in Nevada?
It’s a mystery, but it’s something that America is looking to tackle. Lithium projects are being planned in other locations in Nevada, North Carolina, California, and Arkansas, among other places. But hopefully for the United States, their production of lithium will increase in the near future, as the nation starts turning away from fossil fuels to power their transportation industry.
Currently, one of the issues facing the mining of lithium in the US is that nobody wants a lithium mine in their backyard, and a number of projects have been stalled by environmentalists, as well as native American tribes who currently live in these areas.
Still, given the huge demands on global lithium stores worldwide, the US needs to expedite the inauguration of mines across the country, to ensure they can meet their citizens’ demands for electric vehicles.
