Large industrial nations such as the USA and China, but also many European countries, increasingly want to convert their traffic to electric mobility in order to stop urban pollution and protect the climate. Vehicles that run on electricity instead of diesel or petrol require lithium-ion batteries. Manufacturers need about 6 kilos of lithium for a battery for an electric car with a range of 600 km.
Climate policy needs lithium
According to public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, global lithium mining has more than doubled since 2016 alone. Experts estimate that by 2030, more than 240,000 tonnes of lithium will be needed each year in the automotive industry.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the demand for lithium in 2040 is expected to be 42 times greater than in the comparable year 2020. Research by the Fraunhofer Institute has shown that there are sufficient global reserves for a worldwide switch to electromobility. However, it cannot be ruled out that supply bottlenecks may occur in the short and medium term.
New lithium deposits in the USA
So far, the battery makes up more than 30% of the cost of an electric car. Seventy-five percent of the world’s battery cells are made in Asia, by companies like CATL, LG Energy Solution/LG Chem, BYD, Panasonic, and Samsung SDI.
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Lithium is becoming more and more popular very quickly. About 70% of the world’s lithium reserves should be in the area where Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina meet. A new study in the journal Science Advances says that the 20–40 million tonnes of lithium that are thought to be in the McDermitt Caldera, a volcanic crater on the border between Nevada and Oregon, are correct.
“If you believe their estimates, it is a very, very significant lithium deposit,” British geologist Anouk Borst told the monthly journal Chemistry World. It could change the dynamics of the lithium market globally, in terms of price, security of supply, and geopolitics.
Dirty mining, clean driving?
But climate-friendly driving also has its downside. Depending on the methods used, the extraction of lithium can release large amounts of CO2. It can also contaminate groundwater with dangerous heavy metals and require large amounts of fossil fuels.
To get lithium, 2 million liters of water are needed for every tonne of lithium salt. Rivers are drying up and groundwater is being used up at mining sites. Polluted wastewater is also polluting the land and drinking water.
In order to have the least amount of damage to local environments, a sustainable supply chain for lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars and power grid storage needs to be created.
According to the scientists in an August 2023 piece in Science Advances, this need could be met by lithium resources from volcanic wastes like McDermitt Caldera. These are usually surface deposits with high tonnage and low waste-to-ore ratios.
Experts in raw materials and environmental groups are also calling for the best way to use lithium and batteries: So, making heavy electric cars with the biggest batteries possible is not a good idea, they say. Instead, the most important thing is to sell lighter cars with batteries so that as many people as possible can use them.
