
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile to form OPEC model cartel on lithium - wslh
http://www.commodityonline.com/news/argentina-bolivia-chile-to-form-opec-model-cartel-on-lithium-40467-3-1.html
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scythe
Lithium can be recovered from seawater:

[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304386X879...](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304386X87900454)

[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=lithium+seawat...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=lithium+seawater+recovery&btnG=Search&as_sdt=0%2C11&as_ylo=&as_vis=0)

[http://gas2.org/2008/10/13/lithium-counterpoint-no-
shortage-...](http://gas2.org/2008/10/13/lithium-counterpoint-no-shortage-for-
electric-cars/)

While a lithium trading cartel can and will exist as long as prices for mining
are lower than prices for extraction, the chance of a war over lithium are
practically negligible. The price of lithium from the ocean is only five times
the cost from mining, and the cost of lithium represents a small fraction ( <
$100) of an EV.

>And that brings us to yet another issue: the fact that lithium ion batteries,
despite the name, just really don’t use that much lithium. About 1.4 kilograms
of lithium carbonate are needed per kilowatt hour of lithium-ion batteries. A
kilowatt hour of bulk lithium ion batteries costs $300 to $500. Hence, lithium
carbonate costs only make up 1/30th to 1/50th the cost of the cells! The price
could increase tenfold and you’d barely notice the difference. Source: Gas 2.0
(<http://s.tt/12zDD>)

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wtvanhest
Thanks for looking at this in detail.

If you are right that the price could increase 10 fold without us noticing
than the cartel is a brilliant idea since it will get them just under 5 times
the amount they would get now.

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wslh
It is also very important to know that currently there are many social
activists working against mining in the region. Also it seems that the level
of corruption in the relationship between the governments and the big mining
companies is huge. More information at
[http://wp.cedha.net/?p=8321&lang=en](http://wp.cedha.net/?p=8321&lang=en)

~~~
bmuon
Yes, but unless I'm mistaken I think lithium is not mined in open-pit mines
but in salt evaporation ponds. Activism is focused on open-pit mines at the
moment.

It's also worth mentioning that the plan in Argentina is to produce batteries
and compete with China. Well, that's what it seems to be. The first factory
was just built recently. We'll have to see how it goes.

(Argentinian here)

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aboyeji
This will really suck for these countries. As someone who lives in an oil
producing country, OPEC is a horrible model to follow. Almost all the
countries in OPEC are corrupt, inefficient and have dictatorial govts who
oppress the majority poor in their countries.

That said, I wonder what impact this will have in other conflict regions that
provide lithium or substitutes to lithium like Congo and Afghanistan.

~~~
davidw
Chile already makes much(most?) of it's money from copper, and lately it seems
that they have a decent handle on things, in that it's a stable democracy.

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_Luc
The link is broken, this is the goog cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JIzz0fD...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JIzz0fDVQYkJ:www.commodityonline.com/news/argentina-
bolivia-chile-to-form-opec-model-cartel-on-
lithium-40467-3-1.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk)

