Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 13 views

    Industria Del Litio

    Uploaded by

    Rocio
    - Lithium mining startups are struggling to compete with established lithium companies that control prime brine deposits in South America. - New lithium operations have faced problems, with some being built and then closed down due to unrealistic hype around future demand. - Truly profitable lithium can only be extracted cost-effectively from highly concentrated brine deposits, not from lesser quality sources that many startups had planned to use.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Industria Del Litio

    Uploaded by

    Rocio
    13 views3 pages
    - Lithium mining startups are struggling to compete with established lithium companies that control prime brine deposits in South America. - New lithium operations have faced problems, with some being built and then closed down due to unrealistic hype around future demand. - Truly profitable lithium can only be extracted cost-effectively from highly concentrated brine deposits, not from lesser quality sources that many startups had planned to use.

    Original Title

    Industria del Litio

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    - Lithium mining startups are struggling to compete with established lithium companies that control prime brine deposits in South America. - New lithium operations have faced problems, with some being built and then closed down due to unrealistic hype around future demand. - Truly profitable lithium can only be extracted cost-effectively from highly concentrated brine deposits, not from lesser quality sources that many startups had planned to use.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    13 views3 pages

    Industria Del Litio

    Uploaded by

    Rocio
    - Lithium mining startups are struggling to compete with established lithium companies that control prime brine deposits in South America. - New lithium operations have faced problems, with some being built and then closed down due to unrealistic hype around future demand. - Truly profitable lithium can only be extracted cost-effectively from highly concentrated brine deposits, not from lesser quality sources that many startups had planned to use.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    FORTUNE magazine

    The era of the electric car


    promises a lithium mining
    boom, but new lithium startups
    are floundering. Here's why.
    by David Z. Morris @davidzmorris APRIL 26, 2015, 4:06 PM EDT
        
    Baton Rouge-based Albemarle has its sights on Lithium-ion batteries
    Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Startups and new developments in lithium mining are plagued with problems as
    they try to compete with established lithium companies with access to prime
    deposits.

    About five percent of the lithium carbonate produced in the world today goes to the pharmaceutical market, where it’s valued for its
    calming properties. But with surging demand on the horizon, lithium seems to be having nearly the opposite effect on investors and
    miners.

    Global lithium consumption doubled in the decade before 2012, driven largely by its use in lithium-ion batteries for cell phones and
    power tools. The boom will continue thanks to electric cars—Tesla’s huge gigafactory lithium-ion battery facility could by itself soak
    up as much as 17% of existing lithium supply (That’s a Goldman Sachs estimate—Bank of America’s was about 60% lower). That
    prospect has led a variety of startups to experiment with new processes and sources, hoping to elbow into a business dominated by
    just a few producers.

    But Eric Anderson, CEO of the lithium engineering consultancy TRU, was bearish on lithium investment as early as 2009, when a
    flood of new projects were being planned.

    “I made this statement that people snickered at—that plants would be built and closed . . . because of the hype surrounding the
    industry,” says Anderson.

    Anderson’s lithium predictions have been largely vindicated. Demand has risen more slowly than some expected—still currently
    between 5 and 10% per year—and new operations have been plagued by problems.

    In 2012, Galaxy Resources suspended production at its Mt. Cattlin mine in western Australia. In 2013, RB Energy Inc. opened a new
    lithium carbonate plant in Quebec, only to suspend operations in 2014. Nevada-based Western Lithium, which has been repeatedly
    floated as a potentially convenient supplier for Tesla, has taken shareholders on a very bumpy ride, and is not yet online.

    According to Anderson, Western Lithium, like many new lithium operations, simply aren’t working with the right raw materials.
    Though lithium isn’t rare in the environment, the cost of extraction varies greatly with its concentration and form. With existing
    technology and present prices, truly profitable lithium comes only from the evaporation of highly concentrated brine.

    Those sorts of brine deposits are nearly all in southwest South America, and controlled by established players. The three largest
    lithium producers are the Chile-based Sociedad Quimica y Minera, American FMC Lithium, which controls the ominously-named
    Hombre Muerte mine in Argentina, and Albermarle, which recently acquired competitor Rockwood. Albermarle is developing
    lithium brine holdings around Magnolia, Arkansas—the only American deposits that Anderson allows might make economic sense in
    the near future. Together, these three companies provide more than 90% of the world’s lithium, and have absorbed much of the rising
    demand simply by bringing untapped capacity online.

    A dearth of technical talent seems to be another widespread problem. The Bolivian state has faced serious management and technical
    hurdles in extracting the massive, high-density lithium deposits in the otherworldly salt flat Salar de Uyuni. Similarly, Chinese
    producers Quinghai Lithium and Citic Guoan MGL, hoping to exploit sources near Tibet, have experienced major hurdles, and plans
    to expand Chinese capacity to 60,000 tons a year by this year have been revised downward by half.

    Watch more business news from Fortune:

    Return to TRU Group Inc website

    file: tru-forbes-lithium-junior-hype-2015-04-26.pdf

    You might also like