Is there enough lithium for electric cars

Americas electric cars need lithium so badly it may wipe out this species

Washington, DCCNN

Fewer than 40 years after humans discovered Tiehms buckwheat, a Nevada plant with yellow flowers, they may drive it to extinction in pursuit of electric vehicles, a technology widely hailed as being environmentally friendly.

Environmentalists say the benefits of Tiehms buckwheat could be vast, but its full significance is unknown. Whats certain, they say, is that guarding Tiehms buckwheat is important for preserving biodiversity on Earth. The flower is so newly discovered that it hasnt been studied thoroughly, they say. But botanists say theyre impressed with Tiehms buckwheats ability to thrive where few species can poor soil thats full of boron and lithium.

That lithium in Nevada, and elsewhere in the world, increasingly has the attention of businesses and governments. Ioneer, an Australian mining company, has said its ready to break ground on a lithium mine later this year on the land where Tiehms buckwheat grows. Under the barren soils lies 146.5 million metric tons of lithium and boron. The project has been valued at $1.265 billion.

The fate of Tiehms buckwheat highlights the tradeoffs and tough decisions surrounding green technologies. Businesses that talk of helping the environment may not be above putting a species at risk of extinction. Ioneer argues that from a big-picture perspective, building its lithium mine is good for the environment. It believes the plant can survive being largely relocated, a claim the environmentalists question.

The push for lithium stems from the electric vehicle craze thats unfolded in the last year. States such as California and Washington have said theyll phase out gasoline cars. Tesla has become the worlds most valuable automaker. Automakers like VW and GM have begun to invest billions to transition to electric cars and trucks. Electric vehicles are a cornerstone of President Bidens infrastructure plan, with a $174 billion investment.

Electric vehicles cant happen without lithium and a lot of it. Lithium is a critical mineral in the batteries that power electric vehicles. The world will need to mine 42 times as much lithium as was mined in 2020 if we will meet the climate goals set by the Paris Agreement, according to the International Energy Agency. Existing mines and projects under construction will meet only half the demand for lithium in 2030, the agency said.

The United States has only one active lithium mine today. The country will need 500,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent by 2030, according to research by RK Equity, a New York firm that advises investors on lithium. The entire global lithium carbonate equivalent market last year was 325,000 metric tons, RK Equity partner Howard Klein told CNN Business.

Tiehms buckwheat has yellow flowers, stands about five or six inches high and grows on about 10 acres in the Silver Peak Range of southwest Nevada. It was discovered in 1983, and is one of the 255 species of buckwheat. There are 80 species of buckwheat in Nevada, and 11 are exclusive to the state. Experts say Tiehms buckwheat can grow nowhere else in the world. Building the mine is likely to trigger extinction, they say.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, has pushed for the federal government to designate Tiehms buckwheat an endangered species in a bid to save it.

A Nevada District court judge ruled April 21 that the US Fish and Wildlife Service needs to decide within a month whether to list Tiehms buckwheat as an endangered species. The agency, which was already conducting a review of Tiehms buckwheat at the time of the judges ruling, told CNN Business that it does comment on pending litigation.

Patrick Donnelly, Nevada state director of the Center for Biological Diversity, told CNN Business his group is ready for years of fighting in court to protect Tiehms buckwheat. He believes society needs to think more critically aboutthe appropriate site for a lithium mine, and the value of biodiversity.

On top of an endangered buckwheat isnt the right place, he said. Biodiversity is what gives us clean air to breath and clean water to drink and its what puts food on our plates.

Other environmentalists caution that we dont know what will be lost if Tiehms buckwheat is wiped out. Jim Morefield, supervisory botanist at the Nevada department of conservation and natural resources, told CNN Business that Tiehms buckwheats ability to live in a soil where few plants can survive could offer lessons to people breeding crops.

Thousands of the plants died in September 2020, stirring speculation of a scheme to hurt the plants. A federal government study later concluded that squirrels had eaten many of the plants. Rodents were likely motivated by drought conditions to seek moisture in the shallow roots of the buckwheat, the report found.

The studys merits have been questioned by the Center for Biological Diversity, as well as Naomi Fraga, the director of conservation programs at the California Botanic Garden.

Fraga said she doesnt expect the study would hold up if subjected to the scrutiny of a peer-reviewed publication process.

This isnt the nail in the coffin that closes the case, said Fraga, explaining that she feels the DNA evidence collected didnt seem sufficient to link all of the damage to squirrels.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servicedeclined to comment on the criticism of the report.

Ioneer chairman James Calaway said his company will transfer some of the remaining plants to a different area nearby, where they will be protected, including barriers to guard against rodent attacks. He said a fraction of the plants will remain at their original site. About 30% of the occupied habitat would be impacted by the construction, and 65% of the plants would be relocated, according to an Ioneer spokesman.

But Morefield, the Nevada botanist, cautioned that attempts to transfer plants that are adapt to very specific soils have not succeeded in the past.

He said that 80% of the Tiehms buckwheat, when compared to its 2019 population, would be gone from its original habitat following the mine construction, significantly decreasing the whole species chance of surviving.

Any conservation biologist would look at that number, and its not a hopeful number for a species, Morefield said.

Calaway, Ioneers chairman, feels that the plants recent issues highlight climate change-related risks, and the need to take preventive measures, like building lithium mines, to bring about the environmental benefits of electric vehicles.

Climate change is only getting worse, Calaway said. Is this the biodiversity fight that makes any sense in context of the crisis for all diversity?

Dale Jamieson, a NYU professor studies environment and philosophy, said the United States would be better off with centralized industrial planning to help navigate sticky situations like what to do with Tiehms buckwheat. Scandinavian countries and Germany lead on doing so, he said, and their plans take into account concerns around national security, and critical resources for transportation.

Theres a risk, he said, of businesses responding to short-term economic incentives without longer-term strategies. He pointed to the uranium mines built throughout the United States in the mid-20th century when nuclear power was thought to be the future. Now the US deals with the fallout of many unused mines, like negative health impacts, he said.

Lithium looks good now. How will lithium look in 10 years? Jamieson said. We do know that extinction is forever.

Calaway said that the US needs to be serious about securing the supply chain for electric vehicles, and the country is already lagging behind China. Resources will be strained in a few years if we dont start building out capacity now, he said.

Were getting ready to make one of the biggest bets ever on electrification, Calaway said. This isnt were going to give up the Sequioas. Its 10 acres of a slightly altered buckwheat.

Lithium analysts say that the mines are important, but every project is not necessarily critical to US national security.

Simon Moores, managing director of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which conducts research on the electric vehicle supply chain, said that lithium is now more geopolitically important than oil.

The USA is on lithium red alert, Moores said. Unless the environment concerns are of significance in scale and immediate risk to human life, the USA has to focus on the biggest challenge of all: building its own EV battery supply chain.

Klein, the partner at RK Equity who studies lithium, said that while all electric vehicles and most energy storage technologies need lithium, its relatively abundant, so no one lithium project is of strategic importance to US national security, in terms of having needed minerals for electric vehicles.

He said that halting lithium projects could make the US more dependent on Chinas production for a few more years. But theres plenty of lithium elsewhere, such as North Carolina, Arkansas, California, Canada and Australia, he said.

The sentiment matches remarks from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who said last year that theres enough lithium in Nevada to electrify the entire US fleet.

Theres so much damn lithium on Earth its crazy, Musk said.

Tesla is among the companies that have talked of developing new ways of harvesting lithium from alternative sources, such as from clay or geothermal and oil field brines. Theres a opportunity for the US to lead on lithium, Klein said.

We should be lithium independent and we have that potential, if we develop the resources here, Klein said.

Is There Enough Lithium In The World For Electric Cars?

This is enough to produce about 400 million electric vehicles and a tonne of stationary storage per year. By 2040, the world will require roughly 16,00,000 metric tonnes of lithium if any of this is right and core battery requirements remain unchanged.

Is there a lithium scarcity for electric vehicles?

While the lithium shortage is the most pressing problem for electric car manufacturers, other rare Earth metals required for EV production have also been in short supply this year. In the first few months of 2022, nickel, a vital component of most lithium-ion batteries, saw a massive price increase.

Will there be a lithium scarcity in the future?

The Serbian government on Thursday revoked licenses for a large lithium project owned by Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Plc (RIO.L)(RIO.AX), extending the supply constraint until the middle of the decade, according to industry analysts.

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Based on data from Australias Department of Industry, the United States Geological Survey, business publications, and a Credit Suisse report, the following are some essential facts about major mines and lithium supply.

Is there a sufficient supply of resources to manufacture electric vehicles?

Electric cars will not save us since there are insufficient resources to build them. This article can be found in Treehuggers news archive. Read our most recent news or learn more about our news archiving procedure. Cobalt, lithium, and copper are all in short supply, according to British experts.

Will the worlds lithium supply run out?

Lithium is critical to the achievement of decarbonization goals and the construction of a sustainable future around the planet. Lithium-ion batteries, which are already ubiquitous in consumer devices, are powering electric vehicles and serving as renewable energy storage. With rising demand, rare earth metals are regarded one of the most important components in the transition to a low-carbon economy. As the newest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment illustrates, the window for reducing carbon emissions is fast narrowing before we confront the consequences of a global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. However, in the face of rising lithium demand, the question of whether there is enough lithium to reach these targets has been raised.

Inability to create enough lithium would cause significant delays in the deployment and implementation of electric transportation and renewable energy, raising the question of whether there is enough of the valued element to meet global demand. Traditional lithium mining methods have wreaked havoc on the environment, raising questions about the sectors long-term viability, which would be exacerbated by a scarcity of supply. We can, however, put all of these worries to rest.

Global lithium reserves are believed to be around 14 million tons, with the quantity of lithium required to reach current goals ranging between 0.5 and 1.3 million tons, depending on who you ask. Lithium extraction reached an all-time high of 100,000 metric tons in 2021. These figures alone are reason to be optimistic about the lithium industrys future, but there are numerous other reasons to be optimistic. Lithium can now be extracted more sustainably from brines while also boosting yields, thanks to technological developments in the area, and the establishment of a lithium recycling industry is a given conclusion. This ensures that the worlds lithium supply will not be depleted.

While lithium deposits arent a concern for short- and long-term low-carbon transportation and power, one topic that isnt posed nearly as often is whether current infrastructure can fulfill demand. Unfortunately, battery capacity can be created considerably faster than lithium projects, says Global Lithium president Joe Lowry to S&P Global. The absence of lithium capacity investment over the past five years will extend the supply shortage. Even well-capitalized major lithium firms have had difficulty meeting their expansion goals.

Lowry believes that a deficit could emerge by 2027, and that supply predictions beyond that point cannot be believed to be reliable. FastMarkets confirms Lowry and Global Lithiums concerns, but predicts a supply shortage by 2026. This is why countries are attempting to secure local lithium supplies Mexico, Chile, China, the United States, and the United Kingdom have all indicated an interest in creating their own supply chains in 2021 and 2022.

Conclusion: Securing a Future for Lithium

The critical need to secure lithium, on the other hand, has met with opposition. Following protests, Serbia revoked Rio Tintos lithium mining license, while the United States largest lithium resource, near Thacker Pass, Nevada, is the subject of a court lawsuit that is preventing exploitation. Countries with huge resources, such as Australia, Argentina, and Bolivia, are likely to continue to produce for worldwide markets, but major investments and quick infrastructure expansion will be required to enhance extraction activities. Whats needed is efficient technology that can reduce the dangers of a lithium supply bottleneck from brine to battery, something EnergyX specializes in.

The EnergyX LiTASTM Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology and SoLiSTM batteries are disrupting the market and demonstrating the innovation required to address the industrys actual concerns. LiTASTM is the future of lithium extraction, increasing lithium yields while decreasing the need for heavy chemicals, metals, and vast volumes of water for brine processing. It also produces lithium at a far faster rate than present methods. Meanwhile, SoLiSTM is redefining lithium-ion batteries, with preliminary tests indicating that it is more robust, charges faster, stores more, and is more versatile than anything now available. EnergyX has filed over 50 patents in its four years of existence, and it hopes to resolve challenges within the lithium industry, which it intends to demonstrate by addressing the sectors supply issues.

Is it still a good time to invest in lithium?

When it comes to batteries, lithium is the greatest material on the market right now. That, however, will not persist indefinitely. While it may be worthwhile to invest in now, new types of batteries are in the works that will be a better option in the future.

Salt

Salt, also known as sodium, is a chemical cousin of lithium. While it is a relatively comparable element, it has a lower environmental impact, making it a viable replacement alternative.

Sodium-ion batteries could be the answer. Sodium-ion technology uses no scarce resources, and its manufacture does not necessitate the use of rare lithium salts; ordinary table salt suffices.

Is lithium in high demand?

In 2020, global lithium demand was over 350,000 tons (317,517 metric tons), but industry projections suggest demand may be up to six times higher by 2030.

Is lithium running out?

Based on these three factors, a lithium scarcity is expected between 2021 and 2023 if lithium is not recycled. Current lithium ion battery methods recover little to no lithium and are energy inefficient because they incinerate or shred batteries after cooling them in liquid nitrogen.

Is there a sufficient supply of rare earth minerals for electric vehicles?

Explanation: Many EV detractors will paint the electric battery as hazardous and reliant on rare earth metals mined in war zones. True, cobalt and lithium are extensively utilized in electric vehicle batteries, but rare earth metals arent.

This isnt to suggest they arent troublesome; cobalt mining, in particular, has a slew of major environmental and labor issues, as detailed by Amnesty International and the Washington Post in in-depth reports. However, these issues affect the entire economy. Lithium-ion batteries, which power most cell phones and laptops, contain cobalt. Theres no denying that lithium-ion battery makers need to clean up their supply chains, but Apple, Panasonic, and Samsung are just as much to blame as Tesla, Ford, and General Motors.

Finally, some critics will allege that electric vehicles are reliant on cerium, the majority of which is sourced from China. Cerium is used in the nickel metal hydride batteries of only a few hybrids, but it is also dusted over every catalytic converter in any internal combustion vehicle.

Traditional internal combustion enginesthose that operate on gasoline and dieselactually rely on rare earths more than electric vehicles, both in the vehicles themselves and in the production of the gasoline and diesel that power them.

Is there a sufficient supply of raw materials for electric vehicle batteries?

• Lithium, for example, climbed from $182 per tonne in May 2016 to $296 in May 2018, before falling to $200 in May 2019); price volatility (for example, lithium rose from $182 per tonne in May 2016 to $296 in May 2018, before falling to $200 in May 2019);