The automotive industry’s adoption of lithium-ion batteries has turned lithium, a chemical element until now extracted in small amounts, into a strategic resource whose production will only increase.
The dreamed-of transition to a fully electric future within the next 10 years has sparked a worldwide race to mine and refine this new white gold to fuel the transport of tomorrow.
Lithium (Li) is a chemical element that at its purest takes the form of a soft silver metal. Present in more than 145 types of mineral ores, it is never found in its native metal form. Instead, it can be extracted from hard rock, as in Australia, or recovered by solar evaporation in large saltwater brine basins, as in the South American Andes – the simplest and cheapest method. In 2020, the EU declared lithium a “critical raw material” along with cobalt and nickel, which are also used to make the batteries needed for the energy transition.
Alkemy Capital Investments plc (LON:ALK, FRA: JV2) is focussed on developing projects in the energy transition metals sector. Alkemy’s wholly-owned subsidiary Tees Valley Lithium (TVL) is developing a state of the art lithium hydroxide plant at Teesside, UK. TVL is Europe’s largest independent and sustainable lithium hydroxide producer.