R. Keith Evans refines his projections on lithium supplies.
Premium Feature Article Originally Published: October 09, 2008
Electric cars made a big splash at the Paris Auto Show this month. More than half-a-dozen pure battery electric cars debuted, a few as concepts, but most as pre-production prototypes.
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While their designs and underlying technologies varied, the common denominator was they all use lithium ion batteries and for the moment, virtually all of that lithium comes from a handful of resources, mainly in South America and Tibet.
This geographical -- and geological -- fact of life led the French daily evening newspaper Le Monde to ask, "Will Bolivia be the Dubai of 2050?"
The question is being raised because most of the easily (cheaply) extractable lithium -- the lightest metal on the periodic chart -- comes from high altitude salt pans in the Andes along the border of Chile -- the largest producer -- Bolivia and Argentina. Prior to the exploitation of these relatively-lithium-rich resources, most of the lithium refined in the world came from hard rock, pegmatite sources of spodumene. Unable to compete with the less-expensive salt brines of South America, most pegmatite mining of lithium closed down.
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Reader Comments
2 comments so far...
09-Oct-2008
64308
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At least it IS recycleable.
Posted by: blunt truth
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20-Oct-2008
64494
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How can you charge money for knowledge that could be put to such good use. Don't pretend to be an environmentalist and then hide knowledge from the public.
Posted by: joe schmoe
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