A greener method of mining the metal for electric car batteries is key to automotive supply chain sustainability, and to leading a surging global market.
Boyden's perspectives on the news and trends that are transforming industries
With automakers ramping up electric car manufacturing, the global lithium market is back on the rise following a two-year slump that reversed in September. It is projected to reach $8.24 billion by 2027, more than doubling from $4.09 billion in 2019. Demand is expected to increase tenfold before the end of the decade. The U.S. has some of the world’s largest reserves, but currently produces less than 2% of the world’s annual supply. As it vies with China, Europe and other world powers to dominate the lithium market, the race is on to find new domestic supplies.
At a time of global reckoning on climate change, there is no smooth road to riches here. Lithium and other raw materials like cobalt and nickel are essential to the technologies underlying electric cars and renewable energy – but their production through traditional open-pit mining is known to cause water pollution and depletion. This inconvenient truth is not lost on automotive executives, for whom lithium supply chain sustainability is a pressing concern.
“We really want to force the industries that we’re buying materials from to make sure that they’re doing it in a responsible way,” said Sue Slaughter, Ford’s purchasing director for supply chain sustainability. “As an industry, we are going to be buying so much of these materials that we do have significant power to leverage that situation very strongly. And we intend to do that.” This year Ford was the first American automaker to join the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, a group that vets mines for companies.
One mining project in Nevada is currently pitting environmentalists, Native American tribes and ranchers against mining firm Lithium Americas. The proposed project, an open-pit mine located on federal lands, will be the first new large-scale lithium mine in the U.S. in over a decade. Tim Crowley, Vice President of Government and Community Relations at Lithium Nevada, a Lithium Americas subsidiary, said the company will operate responsibly. “We’re answering President Biden’s call to secure America’s supply chains and tackle the climate crisis,” he said.
Given that the opportunities are as immense as the challenges, innovative miners are developing more sustainable ways to produce the large amounts of lithium needed to supply the automotive sector. In just the first three months of 2021, U.S. lithium miners raised nearly $3.5 billion in investment, the New York Times reports. Some of these investors are backing alternative methods. Among the most promising is brine extraction, which is the basis for a plan to extract lithium from the Salton Sea in California.
Several companies say they have the technology worked out. Vancouver-based Standard Lithium is aiming to go one step greener with its planned development in Arkansas, which would tap into a brine source already being extracted from the ground by a chemical plant. “This green aspect is incredibly important,” said CEO Robert Mintak. “The Fred Flintstone approach is not the solution to the lithium challenge.”
