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When someone asks where the Lithium will come from...
- Thread starter Blue heaven
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- Australia New Zealand
reecho
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Except that's not how most lithium is produced. Lithium from brine makes up the majority of world production (2/3rds), while spodumene is a minority (Greenbushes makes up about 4/5ths of total spodumene production). Brine lithium is growing faster than spodumene, too.
The doubling of capacity at Greenbushes will bring it up to 180k tonnes carbonate equivalent, which will only allow them to roughly maintain their market share. And they have to bet on high prices for that to pay off.
The doubling of capacity at Greenbushes will bring it up to 180k tonnes carbonate equivalent, which will only allow them to roughly maintain their market share. And they have to bet on high prices for that to pay off.
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And when this is added to the other 2 operating Lithium mines plus 3 more about to commence in other parts of this vast state the perceived lack of Lithium is bulldust.
I hope my country starts producing lithium, I think that'd be rather nifty. There's some investigation into using our geothermal water (which we use for power generation and home heating), since some of the wells are 20x or so higher in lithium than seawater. Right now it just gets discharged into the sea once it's been used for heating; extracting the lithium first would not only be zero environmental impact recovery, but negative impact (less mineral discharge) 
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is about 3 000 000 Tesla car packs, not a small number
Carbonate, not metal
It's basically roughly the amount of lithium that will be consumed by 500k M3s per year (not the 700k M3 production that Musk things can be ultimately achieved, no MY, no Semi, no other EVs from Tesla, nothing from other manufacturers, no powerwall, no supercharger buffers, etc). Don't get me wrong, it's still quite significant - as EV numbers scale up, they should be able to keep their share of the world market (although if prices drop, their investors will lose their shirts; spodumene lithium is rather expensive to produce).
Carbonate, not metal
I understood it to be around 70kgs of Carbonate to produce the 12kg of Lithium necessary for an 85kwh pack, thats 2.5 million packs per year, have I missed a process somewhere?
That would be an excellent idea. It would logically be less expensive even than brine, and anyway geothermal mitigates that. It's better than aluminum anyway, isn't it?I hope my country starts producing lithium, I think that'd be rather nifty. There's some investigation into using our geothermal water (which we use for power generation and home heating), since some of the wells are 20x or so higher in lithium than seawater. Right now it just gets discharged into the sea once it's been used for heating; extracting the lithium first would not only be zero environmental impact recovery, but negative impact (less mineral discharge)
In the MS 70, it was stated that there's 63kg of lithium (not carbonate) in the pack:
Breakdown of raw materials in Tesla’s batteries and possible bottlenecks
The article could be misusing terminology, however.
I like to point out that lithium is more abundant than lead. Every car on the road is carrying around 20kg of lead in its 12V battery and just like that battery Li-ion cells can be 100% recycled. All the elements are in exactly the same quantities when the cell has no more life in it as they were when the cell was brand new. We will never run out of lithium.
Direct link as it now kind of hard to find that video:
facebook.com/abcsouthwest/videos/10154712353926811/
facebook.com/abcsouthwest/videos/10154712353926811/
Tesla meets with Premier to discuss options in 'Lithium Valley' Perth
While you're at it Mr Premier can you ask for a few more charging facilities.
While you're at it Mr Premier can you ask for a few more charging facilities.
How Australia became the world's greatest lithium supplier
As demand soars for EVs and clean energy storage, Australia is rising to meet much of the world's demand for lithium. How can we source this lithium sustainably?
www.bbc.com
How Australia became the world's greatest lithium supplier
As demand soars for EVs and clean energy storage, Australia is rising to meet much of the world's demand for lithium. How can we source this lithium sustainably?
Interesting article. It‘s great that we are even talking about the prospect of sustainable mining, because the drilling, extraction and refining of oil or digging up of coal can never be sustainable because the purpose of those products is to burn them.
RareEarth
Member
Another aspect of sustainable mining is the clean up at end of life. This must be enforced at all mines / wells, regardless of the product.
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