Regional focus
Indigenous people across South America have been protesting against exploitative mining practices as well as the over- extraction of water.
source – and make lithium extraction cleaner. Fortunately, while politicians draft and mining executives fret, scientists are hard at work. One of the most interesting initiatives involves the desalination of seawater. By using a metal-organic framework – imagine a type of complicated sponge – miners can extract lithium from the endless waters of the Pacific Ocean. Though the technology is both expensive and in the early stages of development, Cantallopts and his team at Cochilo are “strongly” in favour of it. That’s bolstered, adds Whittle, by other innovations, including extracting brine without evaporation. This could one day allow brine to be put back into the earth once the lithium is safely away – or even using solvents to secure lithium before it ever leaves the ground.
At the same time, the industry is looking at more straightforward ways of going green. An obvious option is recycling, something that’s already happening far from the shores of the Atacama. In Europe, for instance, officials have proposed recycling targets for lithium-ion batteries. On the other side of the world, Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, recently suggested several ways to boost its own lithium recycling system. Among other things, this included better labelling and building more collection facilities. Certainly, none of these are bad ideas, yet experts warn that they can never hope to solve the industry’s broader problems alone. “In lithium-ion batteries, the amount of lithium is 2–3%, so there isn’t much cost advantage in recycling over direct mining,” warns Dr Mahdokht Shaibani, a colleague of Whittle’s at Monash University. Even so, Shaibani adds that the number of end-of-life lithium batteries will “skyrocket” over the next decade – so governments, scientists and industry all need to work together to prepare decent recycling facilities.
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Where does all this leave the Atacama in the here and now? Whatever the human and environmental struggles, it’s hard to see the lithium boom slowing.
Not down, nor under “We anticipate that we are going to keep rapidly expanding our lithium production industry and we also aim to develop a downstream industry with a focus on developing value-added products,” says Cantallopts. “We also have positive growth expectations for other countries in the region, especially Argentina, with several projects in hand.” Given the hunger for lithium in the global economy, that makes sense – not least in developing countries. According to one recent study, China’s demand for the metal will triple by 2025. Across the Himalayas, India is proving just as vociferous, with the country expected to manufacture up to 40% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries by the middle of this decade. Even so, the natives of the Atacama probably shouldn’t despair just yet. Prodded on by activists and legal action, after all, SQM has bolstered its membership of the IRMA with a number of other commitments. For one thing, it’s promised to half brine extraction by 2030. For another, it’s investing billions of dollars in a lithium project in Australia. Rather than removing lithium from brine, this alternative method instead extracts it from spodumene, a type of mineral. More to the point, Werner suggests that where SQM goes, other industry leaders will follow. “The behaviour of major producers in Chile, such as SQM, ought to help to raise the bar for all operators in South America.” A fair point – for if Chile is finally cleaning up its act, it would be a tragedy for the desert landscapes of Bolivia and Argentina to remain roto in its stead. ●
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
Felix Malte Dorn/
Shutterstock.com
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