Reading Practice: The Future of Lithium

The Future of Lithium

A Discussion About ‘White Gold’ and its Environmental Impact

In the twenty-first century, the attention of scientists, manufacturers and the media has been increasingly focused towards one resource in particular: lithium. Since its discovery in the nineteenth century, lithium has had several significant technological uses, from weapons to medicine and most recently for the use of rechargeable batteries. As the demand for electric cars now threatens the oil industry and will potentially shift humanity’s needs away from fossil fuels, the use of lithium in rechargeable batteries is predicted to have a significant impact on current economic and social models. The following article first follows the discovery, developments and demands of this resource before also considering the impacts and implications this so-called ‘white gold’ is having on the world’s environment. 1

Scientists believe that lithium was likely created with the events of the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago, but as with many resources it was not until the development of science and technology in the early 1800s that this element was formally discovered. It is now understood that lithium can be found in two primary environments: mines and brine water. The former refers to the lithium found in hard-rock formations such as in spodumene and petalites. It was during the analysis of petalites (a type of mineral) that Swedish physicist Johann August Arfvedson discovered lithium in 1817 – although it took approximately fifty more years to isolate the lithium compound. This was done by using an electric current to cause a chemical reaction known as electrolysis. The combination of mining such ore minerals and extracting the lithium through electrolysis is considered an expensive production process. This was nevertheless the predominant method for producing lithium up until the late 1990s. From this point onwards, it then became increasingly common to instead extract lithium from brine water as producing lithium in this way costs almost half as much as mining it. 2

Brine containing lithium reportedly represents over 80% of the world’s lithium reserves. Such brine most commonly occurs in underground reservoirs below the surface of salty, dried lakebeds. There are a number of these lakebeds (or salars, as they are called) in the world, but one of the largest and perhaps most reputed geographical areas for them is known as the ‘white triangle’ and crosses Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. From the underground pools of these salars, brine is first extracted and then the sun is used to evaporate much of the liquid until enough concentrated lithium remains. These remains are then pumped to a nearby processing plant in which additional metals such as magnesium or barons are removed. Although this process is certainly cheaper than traditional mining, it can take up to two or three years before the necessary evaporation is complete. Therefore, although brine extraction may be more cost effective, it is not necessarily quicker than traditional mining methods. Nevertheless, lithium companies appear to be continually investing into newer technologies to decrease the production time, and it is believed that in the near future these companies will succeed in expediting the process greatly. 3

Perhaps unknown to most people outside of South America, it is significant that such lithium-dense salars are found in Bolivia as this country is economically one of the weakest in the region. Most of its citizens live impoverished and are well below the poverty line. In 2018, however, it was reported that the Bolivian prime minister Evo Morales agreed to a business deal with a small German company to build a multi-million-dollar lithium production plant. This new partnership is hoped to provide Bolivia the opportunity to significantly increase its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as it is predicted that the demand for lithium will double by the year 2025. The cause for this predicted increase in demand appears mostly linked to the use of rechargeable batteries in electric cars. However, before the invention of batteries, particularly the type found in many of society’s most popular turn-of-the-millennium electronic devices, lithium has historically had multiple significant uses. These uses can perhaps be most easily separated into two categories: those for the body and those for industry. 4