
Vast deposits of lithium could change the global politics of battery production - Mz
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/will-supervolcanoes-help-power-our-future-180964635/?no-ist
======
ris
Sadly lithium still isn't scarce enough to make it uneconomic to produce a
perfectly good rechargeable battery and sell it as single-use
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5korWqCcsHE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5korWqCcsHE)

I can tell you where you're going to be able to find those vast lithium
deposits soon - landfill sites.

~~~
cmurf
In all the towns I've lived in, it's illegal to put fluorescent bulbs and
lithium batteries in the trash. They're supposed to be disposed of as
hazardous waste.

~~~
micv
It's not like they can really inspect the contents of your bin before the
machinery dumps it all into the truck. You'd have to do something really dumb
to get caught. Those rules really depend on most people not being dicks about
it.

~~~
_coldfire
Most garbage collection in Australia has a camera to inspect bin contents and
catch people abusing the recycling system.

It's been in place for a decade now.

[https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/waste-truck-watching-
you-g...](https://www.news-mail.com.au/news/waste-truck-watching-you-garbage-
council-removal/577961/)

~~~
micv
That's interesting. The non-recyclable waste is normally packaged up into
black bags here in the UK and it's often pretty noxious. They're not gonna
slice them open so a camera can have a look, so people can put almost anything
in them so long as it fits.

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CaliforniaKarl
One thing that concerns me is, I don't think there was any mention of the
sensitivity of the sites listed in the article. For example, the article
casually listed the Yellowstone caldera.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Lithium-rich sites were significant sites to a
significant number of people.

~~~
hwillis
There are plenty of very large calderas that are unpopular and already host to
mining operations. Much of the west coast is stuff like this. McDermitt
Caldera contains over 3 million tons of lithium, for instance:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDermitt_Caldera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDermitt_Caldera)

------
hwillis
Hard rock lithium -pegmatites- were actually the _majority_ of global lithium
until recently. They were/are primarily used in ceramics. Brine-produced
lithium has one fewer step to convert to lithium in batteries, but the cost is
absolutely marginal. These pegmatites are common worldwide, unlike brine
deposits.

Brines are mined somewhat like fracking- a borehole is drilled and water
(without fracturing compounds) is injected and then pumped out into large
evaporating pools, leaving behind lithium-containing salts. It's
extraordinarily cheap because it's dead simple to purify and doesn't even
involve actual mining. However these sites are uncommon (though there are
still several in the US, and worldwide- they are not limited to South America)
and since you're limited to land area, evaporation speed and water supply,
this is a limited and slow process. And the water use can be a real problem-
brines often exist in places with limited water supplies as the water washes
the lithium away over long timescales. Still, the evaporation pools often
support life for a time, and flamingos like them. It would be much better to
not waste the water though.

Hectorite is the main focus of this article. It requires a couple more steps
(limestone roast and acid leach) to extract and costs ~$2/lb[1] (NB that was
in 1987) compared to current carbonate prices of $2.5-$3.5. I wouldn't say
it's nonviable because it probably helps to put a ceiling on the long-term
price of lithium, however high lithium content in these clays is .35-.65%
compared to 6%+ in pegmatites. I'm not sure it will ever be relevant. Also
note that although "acid wash" sounds bad, it doesn't have to be. The acids
get reused.

The bottom line is that lithium is highly available. It contributes very
little (<5%) to the cost of a battery, so huge disruptions (4x price increases
in the last lithium shortage) have very little impact on the price of
batteries as long as availability is not affected.

The biggest price factor in most batteries is cobalt- it's very expensive and
makes up many times more of a battery's mass than lithium. Currently most of
it comes from two countries in Africa. The DRC is one of the few places in the
world where cobalt can be found on its own. Despite this it's almost always
found with nickel, which is produced in huge quantities. For the moment the
cobalt supply for batteries will remain stable solely because of the recovery
of nickel prices- this has caused a half dozen or so mines to open/reopen in
the US. There was a strong fear that cobalt would put a brutal penalty on the
price of lithium batteries during the nickel price crash, and eventually that
might still be the case. It's also worth noting that there are many alternate
chemistries that don't use cobalt, but the best ones do. It's possible that a
new chemistry (such as li-metal/foil batteries) may change that, but unlikely.

Finally, graphite is the last supply threat. Battery graphite is about a 40/60
synthetic/natural blend- both types have advantages and disadvantages, so they
are used together. High quality spheroidal graphite is hard to find, but the
synthetic stuff is nearly as cheap so it's unlikely it'll be a problem. I
don't know much about the specifics but I think it comes down to a lack of
searching, ie it's easier to sell high quality graphite as anthracite coal
than to worry about selling to battery producers.

[1]:
[http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/techreports/PDF/USBM-691.pd...](http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/techreports/PDF/USBM-691.pdf)

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everheardofc
The problem isn't lack of lithium. It's a lack of cobalt.

~~~
hwillis
There's no lack of cobalt, it's only the most constrained supply. There's no
problem with abundance as long as mines are opened.

Secondary problems of increased cobalt demand: the price of nickel will
probably crash again, as they are found together except for in a few
countries.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
How is cheap nickel a "problem"?

~~~
LeifCarrotson
It'll hurt the nickel industry!

Seriously, though, like any commodity, dumping lots of excess nickel on the
market could force mines to shut down if they can't weather the temporary
explosion from a temporary demand spike in cobalt due to this lithium concept.
Then when the explosion stopped, cobalt mining slowed down, you'd coast on
excess reserves for a while.

When those reserves run out, suddenly you need nickel but the mines haven't
been profitable for a decade, it takes time to restart surveying activity,
procure specialized equipment, find/train employees...you can't turn it back
on like a switch. But you can almost turn it off like a switch with new tech
that obsoletes an industry.

------
rdiddly
TL;DR - in addition to the usual spots at the bottom of drainage basins,
lithium also exists in pegmatite and hectorite deposits. But there's currently
no commercially-viable process for extracting it. Headline is kind of hype-y.

~~~
hwillis
> But there's currently no commercially-viable process for extracting it.

No, that's just hype. Hard rock lithium -pegmatites- were actually the
_majority_ of global lithium until recently. They were/are primarily used in
ceramics. Brine-produced lithium has one fewer step to convert to lithium in
batteries, but the cost is absolutely marginal. It's plenty easy and
commercially viable to produce batteries from pegmatite lithium.

Hectorite is specifically what she was talking about as nonviable, which
appears to be broadly correct. It requires a couple more steps to extract and
costs ~$2/lb[1] compared to current carbonate prices of $2.5-$3.5. So I
wouldn't say it's nonviable because it probably helps to put a ceiling on the
long-term price of lithium. However high lithium content in these clays is
.35-.65% compared to 6%+ in pegmatites. I'm not sure it will ever be relevant.

[1]:
[http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/techreports/PDF/USBM-691.pd...](http://digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/techreports/PDF/USBM-691.pdf)

