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Its really hard to find stats for refinement. I thought I had seen 90%, but I do not remember where. Your [1] seems to suggest its only 60%. So I might have bee

Its really hard to find stats for refinement. I thought I had seen 90%, but I do not remember where. Your [1] seems to suggest its only 60%. So I might have been wrong on that.

defrost 4y ago
My [1] states that : [ China ] also hosts 60% of the world’s lithium refining capacity for batteries. AND states that : Batteries == 74% of total lithium usage So that's 60 % of 74 % of global refining capacity (I'll leave the math for you) That's also a tad out of date as it fails to account for post 2020 refining plants and the coming changes as proposed plants (eg: Musk's super Texas plant) lay ground and get built to start production in (?) near future.
- panick21_ 4y ago
  You need lithium refinement not just for batteries. You don't need lithium as poor for other applications, but its still has to be refined. So its more like 60% of all global lithium refinement. China has less % of that in terms of battery materials production, as that is also very common in South Korea and Japan. > and the coming changes as proposed plants Yeah but its not only the rest of the world that has plans. Lithium refinement capacity in China is also growing. Partly why Tesla is building the refinement plant is because of Chinas dominance.
  - defrost 4y ago
    > So its more like 60% of all global lithium refinement. This is poor reasoning. > Lithium refinement capacity in China is also growing. Falling in a relative sense, particularly now that the movement globally is against offshoring the filthy end of rare earth semi conductor, solar, battery, etc production to China. China's dominance of REO production came as a result of a practice of shipping global concentrates to China .. in a production sense these are relatively low tonnages (dwarfed by iron ore etc shipping) .. and with large plants planned outside of China (eg the one linked above in Malaysia) there is now will be significant competition | options for locations where concentrates can be refined.

Its really hard to find stats for refinement. I thought I had seen 90%, but I do not remember where. Your [1] seems to suggest its only 60%. So I might have been wrong on that.

defrost 4y ago

My [1] states that : [ China ] also hosts 60% of the world’s lithium refining capacity for batteries. AND states that : Batteries == 74% of total lithium usage So that's 60 % of 74 % of global refining capacity (I'll leave the math for you) That's also a tad out of date as it fails to account for post 2020 refining plants and the coming changes as proposed plants (eg: Musk's super Texas plant) lay ground and get built to start production in (?) near future.

panick21_ 4y ago
You need lithium refinement not just for batteries. You don't need lithium as poor for other applications, but its still has to be refined. So its more like 60% of all global lithium refinement. China has less % of that in terms of battery materials production, as that is also very common in South Korea and Japan. > and the coming changes as proposed plants Yeah but its not only the rest of the world that has plans. Lithium refinement capacity in China is also growing. Partly why Tesla is building the refinement plant is because of Chinas dominance.
- defrost 4y ago
  > So its more like 60% of all global lithium refinement. This is poor reasoning. > Lithium refinement capacity in China is also growing. Falling in a relative sense, particularly now that the movement globally is against offshoring the filthy end of rare earth semi conductor, solar, battery, etc production to China. China's dominance of REO production came as a result of a practice of shipping global concentrates to China .. in a production sense these are relatively low tonnages (dwarfed by iron ore etc shipping) .. and with large plants planned outside of China (eg the one linked above in Malaysia) there is now will be significant competition | options for locations where concentrates can be refined.