4 ms·
My point wasn’t about the sourcing of natural resource. It’s about the steps within supply chain, most of Australia’s lithium is refined/processed in China[1].
by snake_doc 4y ago
My point wasn’t about the sourcing of natural resource.
It’s about the steps within supply chain, most of Australia’s lithium is refined/processed in China[1].
It will take roughly a decade for other countries to ramp and move back down the learning curve for refining/processing capacity at market cost. China’s control over this bottleneck step won’t change for this decade, as they continue to consolidate state investments.
Yes countries are catching up in sourcing natural resources, but the processing into chemicals and then components are still mostly done in China. For example, most battery cathode materials are made in East Asia, and battery factories import them.
[1] “Most Australian lithium is exported to China, accounting for over 85% of total value in each month of 2021 and over 94% in each month of 2022 (year to date). In June 2022, $1,128m worth of lithium was exported to China, accounting for 97% of the total lithium exports for that month (Figure 4).” https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/insights-australian-exports-lithium https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/insights-australian-exports-...
- Animats 4y agoLithium refining technology suppliers: - Metso:Outotech (Finland) - mostly does dry source minerals. - SaltWorks (Canada) - mostly does wet source (brines) minerals. They claim a near closed-cycle process for water, rather than needing vast amounts of fresh water. US Plants under construction or proposed. - Silver Peak, NV [1] - Proposed Tesla lithium plant in Texas.[2] - Miner Piedmont plant in Tennessee,[3] China currently has about 80% of world lithium refining capacity, but that's rapidly changing. China is a net lithium importer. The big mining countries are Australia and Chile. China is under 10% in lithium ores. New refining plants are being built in Australia, too. Pilbara Minerals in Australia claims to have the largest single lithium mine in the world. They are expanding into refining.[4] The Kermerton plant in Australia, which cut production in half in 2020 due to low lithium prices, is going back to full production and looking at expansion.[5] The price of lithium has gone up about 8x in the last few years. So everybody in the industry is now expanding. Expect a capacity glut 3-4 years out. [1] https://archive.ph/2DDdw/again?url=https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/albemarle-plans-major-us-lithium-processing-plant-2022-06-27/ https://archive.ph/2DDdw/again?url=https://www.reuters.com/b... [2] https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tesla-proposes-texas-lithium-refinery https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tesla-proposes-texas-lithi... [3] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/miner-piedmont-unveils-plans-for-new-lithium-refining-plant-in-push-for-domestic-ev-supply-chains.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/miner-piedmont-unveils-plans... [4] https://www.miningmagazine.com/plant/news/1409915/lithium-refinery-proposed-in-wa https://www.miningmagazine.com/plant/news/1409915/lithium-re... [5] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-16/lithium-expansion-again-for-albemarle/101068890 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-16/lithium-expansion-aga... [6] https://www.dailymetalprice.com/metalpricecharts.php?c=li&u=kg&d=240 https://www.dailymetalprice.com/metalpricecharts.php?c=li&u=...