China’s Battery Factories May Sit Atop Lithium Resources
Exxon, Chevron Executives Cancel Gulf Visit Over Security Concerns What I Cover Irina Slav has been writing about global energy markets since 2007, covering the oil and gas industry, energy security, commodities, and the… The world’s largest battery maker and user, the country that dominates all alternative energy technology, is about to find out whether it could also boost its already dominant presence in a critical battery metal: lithium.
China, according to a new study, could have significant, untapped resources of lithium right underneath its battery factories.
The possibility was detailed in a recent study that argued lithium deposits resulting from ancient volcanic activity could be located in East and South China, where most of the country’s battery factories were built.
Ancient volcanoes produced so-called volcanic clay, which over time mineralized with lithium.
Researchers have already found evidence of lithium mineralization in clay layers of volcanic rock.
As one of the researchers put it in aninterviewwith the South China Morning Post, “potential targets for clay-type lithium deposits in southeastern China overlap with lithium battery industrial clusters in East and South China”.
If proved viable, “Local supplies could significantly reduce transport costs and supply-chain risks,” Duan Zheng from the Chinese Academy of Sciences also said.
China controls between 70% and 80% of the global lithium supply chain, but it is not the world’s biggest producer of the metal.
It is, however, the second-biggest, right after Australia.
China is also the undisputed leader in lithium processing, with other countries only recently realizing their mistake in outsourcing their battery business to China, making themselves dependent on it in an increasingly fractured geopolitical canvas.Related: UBS Sees $110 Brent by Year-End as Gulf Flows Stay Below Prewar Levels The possibility that China has even more domestic lithium resources it could develop would reduce its own dependence on foreign lithium—leaving more of it for battery hopefuls in North America and Europe.
However, that possibility has yet to be proven.
As with so much news about battery space, many potentially groundbreaking developments never leave the lab or, as in this case, the academy of sciences.
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