Soquimich Lithium Plant, Atacama, Chile
https://goo.gl/maps/y9tW5sum2mt
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Argentina, Chile and Bolivia hold the planet’s largest reserves of lithium, the world’s lightest metal and a key component in batteries used to power a range of technologies from cell phones to laptops to electric cars. Industrial production from countries in this so-called “lithium triangle” is already high. Chile is the world’s leading source of the metal, turning out around 40 percent of global supply, and Argentina is also a significant producer. Output from the Andes may soon rise after Bolivia – the country that holds an estimated 50 percent of the world’s lithium reserves – opened its first lithium pilot plant in January.
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Lithium has been described by some analysts as “white petroleum”, a resource that could help the world move away from its dependence on fossil fuels and into a new era of battery-powered energy. Global climate agreements, tightening fuel economy standards and China’s attempts to tackle its pollution crisis all point towards a future in which batteries — and their component parts — will play an increasingly important role. Lithium-based batteries are lighter, charge faster and are able to store more energy than traditional ones, making them a strong contender to “replace gasoline as the primary source of transportation fuel”, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs, which published a report in December 2015 predicting that the size of the global lithium market could triple by 2025. The market is still relatively small — worth about $1bn a year — and not everyone agrees on the scale of growth to come. The raw material is time-consuming to extract and refine, and other battery technologies that could displace lithium in a decade or two are in development. But even skeptics admit the material will probably become increasingly important as electric vehicles move towards mass-market adoption.
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Ref: https://www.ft.com/ and http://nbcnews.com
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August 9, 2017
