Lithium is but one piece in the complex and interwoven battery supply chain. As the US seeks to onshore manufacturing, the landscape for lithium and other battery components will continue to evolve. At the recent Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC), a host of speakers tackled the challenges in securing lithium for future battery industry needs.
Today, lithium comes from mine or brine. On the mining side, lithium is present in minerals such as spodumene and extracted via conventional hard rock mining technology in Australia. On the other hand, there are a variety of lithium-rich brine lakes (150–1800 ppm Li) where lithium can be evaporatively extracted. The largest of the brine sources are in South America but resources such as the Salton Sea in southern California offer a potential domestic supply. However, brine evaporation is slow (about 18 months) and requires vast networks of ponds that have lasting ecological impacts.
Alkemy Capital Investments plc (LON:ALK) is focussed on developing projects in the energy transition metals sector. Tees Valley Lithium is developing a state of the art lithium hydroxide plant at Teesside, UK. Tees Valley Graphite is developing the UK’s first natural graphite active anode material processing facility at the ‘plug-and-play’ Wilton International Chemicals Park.