Water- and energy-hungry mining operations have made lithium an uncomfortable subject for these championing a transition to renewable vitality. Can or not it’s mined in a extra environmentally pleasant approach? One or two new approaches seem to make the case that it could actually, together with an initiative that hopes to start mining operations within the North of England within the subsequent couple of years.
Demand has clearly soared for lithium in recent times, with costs following an 11-fold enhance between 2020 and 2022.1 However the materials is difficult to extract from the bottom. A lot of the world’s provide appears to reside in Latin America, the place mining operations have now made Chile and Argenina main suppliers, however most of it comes from Australia.
A 2022 UNDP doc asks whether or not the race to take advantage of lithium isn’t a brand new El Dorado, referencing the legendary quest related to a lot tragic failure. The identical report explains why lithium is so laborious to take advantage of, principally as a result of it requires important funding whereas a lot of the revenue comes from a protracted worth chain that creates lithium batteries. There are restricted good points for international locations who merely extract and export it.
There are additionally the environmental prices related to the way in which lithium mining has been undertaken so far. However new strategies of extraction and new sorts of geological useful resource are being offered as a strategy to go away behind many of those issues.
Presenting at BlueTech Discussion board in Edinburgh in June,2 Durham-based Northern Lithium’s Nick Pople spoke about lithium’s “loopy provide chain”, and the truth that it’s not solely “mined in an unsatisfactory approach” however it’s additionally transported lengthy distances. “The lithium in your automobile battery could have achieved possibly 35k miles already”, he mentioned.
The intention is to get that down to some dozen kilometres, then right into a automobile, and right into a automobile showroom, as he defined. And his personal agency appears to be closest to reaching that aim, though many different teams are on the lookout for lithium within the UK (round 340, he mentioned), and two different firms appear fairly far alongside the trail in direction of business extraction.
It’s estimated that the UK will want as much as 80,000 tonnes per yr by 2030 – and as a lot as 135,000 tonnes per yr by 2040.3
Propitious geology is actually one a part of the equation, and deposits thought of most promising for lithium exploration are typically both mineral (rock) or brine deposits.4 Mineral deposits predominate in Australia, the world’s largest producer of lithium by far (round 54% globally). Rocks are crushed, floor and heated to extract the ores, in an energy-intensive course of.
Brine-based lithium sources, however, are likely to fall into two varieties: continental deposits, and geothermal or oilfield brines. “Continental” brine deposits have been the primary supply of lithium from brines.5 These are fashioned by the evaporation of water in arid or semi-arid inland areas, and the lithium is extracted from the brines which can be pumped up from deep groundwater wells.
These account for the tons of of salt lakes whose brines assist Latin America’s lithium business, with Chile being the second largest world producer (with round 24% of world provide). The method of extraction makes use of huge quantities of water, primarily salt water, but additionally a major quantity of freshwater for purification. Lithium mining corporations in Chile and Argentina have been accused of depleting water assets, by as much as 65 % within the Salar de Atacama area.
Mining operations are additionally related to an elevated danger of contaminating water basins, in accordance with the UNDP.
Geothermal or oilfield brine are at an earlier stage of improvement, and account for a lot of the curiosity at the moment being generated in elements of Europe, the place just a few international locations slip into the USGS’s 2022 checklist of distinguished lithium assets worldwide, particularly Germany (3%), Czech Republic (1.5%) and Serbia (1.4%).6
However new assets are being uncovered on a regular basis, and far curiosity can also be obvious in Italy and the UK, for instance.
Geothermal brines are typically discovered deep underground, in areas additionally related to geothermal or hydrocarbon reservoirs.
In Could, UK agency Watercycle Applied sciences Ltd, introduced it had efficiently extracted lithium to supply battery-grade lithium carbonate from geothermal brines. The agency’s proprietary know-how, referred to as Direct Lithium Extraction and Crystallisation (DLEC™), was put to work on brines obtained from two geothermal wells from the Lazio, a province of central Italy.7
Watercycle Applied sciences has additionally been working with Weardale Lithium Lrd, one in every of two corporations (together with Northern Lithium) to have secured unique entry to boreholes in Weardale within the North Pennines. Weardale’s web site explains that the boreholes have been beforehand developed in 2004 and 2007, for geothermal functions, and so have already been drilled, with more moderen investigation figuring out “excessive ranges of lithium”.8
Three areas of the UK are at the moment the main focus of exploration: Cumbria, the North Pennines and the Southwest. Cornish Lithium positioned reserves of lithium within the southwest in 2020, and has ongoing tasks to develop lithium in geothermal waters and from laborious rock.
Northern Lithium has additionally secured mineral rights in Weardale and, once more with saline brines extracted from geothermal boreholes. NLi is working with know-how agency Evove. The 2 accomplished trials in August 2023, wherein they produced round 2kg of battery-grade lithium carbonate, at a purity degree above 99.5%.
In late June, NLi and Evove signed a contract to put in and trial a lithium extraction plant at a manufacturing website in County Durham.9
The preliminary module will probably be put in this autumn, as a precursor to a sequence of modular extensions which can be meant to see it attain fullscale business manufacturing of battery grade lithium in 2027.
The benefit claimed for Evove’s DLE know-how “lies within the means to extract lithium at a excessive purity”, as NLi explains. Core to the method is using membrane filtration know-how, which “processes brines containing lithium very cleanly, decreasing the vitality, water and chemical footprint and enhancing the economics.”
As The Chemical Engineer reported final yr, the agency’s method employs a coating on the membrane, in a position to take away the divalent ions (i.e., magnesium, calcium and so forth) making it simpler to subsequently isolate the lithium. The previous couple of divalent ions are eliminated by a subsequent ion-exchange stage, previous to the refining of the fabric to realize a excessive purity.10
The group mentioned it’s focusing on business manufacturing of as much as 10,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium per yr within the North East throughout the subsequent decade.
Each Weardale Lithium and Northern Lithium say they intend for his or her merchandise for use in native factories constructing electrical automobiles.
The geopolitical problems of the current period clearly add impetus to efforts to supply a homegrown provide of many minerals. The EU this yr introduced plans to make sure at the least 10% of its provide of important minerals are extracted in Europe by 2030, with its European Essential Uncooked Supplies Act.
In Serbia, Rio Tinto’s deliberate $2.4 billion mine within the Jadar Valley has mobilized unprecedented ranges of public protest in opposition to lithium mining within the nation, with the nation’s president Aleksandar Vučić having warned in mid-August that this protest was the locus of a plot to hold out a Balkan “color revolution”.11
Among the protest appears positioned with antipathy in direction of the EU, and the Serbian mine is being developed from a memorandum of understanding that these assets will probably be introduced into Europe’s provide chain. However protestors have additionally been vocal concerning the potential for environmental issues.
A lot of the promise of rising methods to take advantage of lithium from brines is that it may be achieved “in an environmentally accountable and cost-effective approach”, as Wearcycle Applied sciences’ literature places it. Whereas the case for brand new approaches to lithium mining is at the moment being made, it appears clear there’s nonetheless far to journey to persuade the general public.
Notes
[1] US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 Knowledge Launch. See https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/merchandise/6197ccbed34eb622f692ee1c
[2] BlueTech Discussion board 2024. Meeting Rooms, Edinburgh. 3-4 June 2024.
[3] Press launch, “North of England partnership to ship 1st UK-sourced Direct Lithium Extraction plant for home provide of lithium”, December 19, 2023. See https://www.northernlithium.co.uk/north-of-england-partnership-to-deliver-1supst-sup-uk-sourced-direct-lithium-extraction-plant-for-domestic-supply-of-lithium/.
[4] “The potential for lithium within the UK”, UK Essential Minerals Intelligence Centre. See https://ukcmic.org/downloads/reviews/the-potential-for-lithium-in-the-uk-2022.pdf.
[5] ibid.
[6] US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022 Knowledge Launch. See https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/merchandise/6197ccbed34eb622f692ee1c
[7] Press launch, “Battery grade lithium carbonate produced from central Italy brine”, Could 2024, Watercycle Applied sciences Ltd.
[8] See https://weardalelithium.co/.
[9] “Northern Lithium locations business order for a Direct Lithium Extraction demonstration plant from Evove”, June 26, 2024. See https://www.northernlithium.co.uk/strongnorthern-lithium-places-commercial-order-for-a-direct-lithium-extraction-demonstration-plant-from-evove-strong/.
[10] “UK lithium increase as engineers use membranes to extract lithium from brine”, The Chemical Engineer, 19 September 2023. See https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/information/uk-lithium-boost-as-engineers-use-membranes-to-extract-lithium-from-brine/.
[11] “Activist against Rio Tinto lithium mine receives nameless dying threats”, The Guardian, 22 August 2024. See https://www.theguardian.com/enterprise/article/2024/aug/22/activist-serbia-rio-tinto-lithium-mining-environment-death-threats
