Red Lights in the Green Journey

Main Findings of a Vital UN Report

The electric car revolution is happening now. More and more countries around the world, especially advanced economies are cruising on the green lane, even as heat wave alerts are being sounded across Europe. No one dares to deny that the present climate crisis is the greatest challenge facing civilisation and the time to act was yesterday. But as more and more cars, buses, two and three wheelers – in fact electric vehicles of all configurations --- rev up and hit the roads, new batteries powering these automobiles need to come off assembly lines. Therein lies the conundrum. These batteries are slated to fuel a new transit revolution, but they will also be energised by scarce and expensive metals, yet to be harvested. Their potential to act as a salve for a wounded, smouldering planet is mired in environmental and social costs, inevitably shelled out by poorer nations that are being mostly denied the spoils of the new war on fossil fuels (This issue has been discussed in detail in the next article by Anshi Beohar). Lithium-ion batteries (LIB), the dominant technology, is pushing for the mining of chemical elements with ruthless consequences

Following are excerpts from the United Nation’s report ‘Commodities at a glance: Special issue on strategic battery raw materials,’ that bring together basic information regarding LIB, mainly its components, LIB manufacturing countries, raw materials used and impact of production activities on the environment. To read the full report, click here: https://bit.ly/3xdKUww

Historical Background of Battery Raw Materials

The principal materials used in LIBs are cobalt, lithium, manganese and graphite (allotrope of carbon).

Cobalt

Cobalt is the key element in several forms of clean energy production technology applications…

Cobalt occurs in the earth crust or sometimes relatively near the surface, mostly in combination with nickel and/or copper. The world terrestrial cobalt resources are estimated to be about 25 million tons. Most of these resources are in sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposits in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia (Africa’s copper belt); nickel-bearing laterite deposits in Australia and nearby island countries and Cuba; and magmatic nickel-copper sulphide deposits hosted in mafic and ultramafic rocks in Australia, Canada, Russia, and the United States.

Lithium

Lithium is highly reactive with water and forms strong hydroxide solutions, yielding lithium hydroxide and hydrogen gas. Lithium hydroxide is used in the production of cathode materials for lithium ion batteries… Lithium is also formed in brine deposits as lithium chloride salts. The main type of brine deposit mined for lithium is found in interior saline drainage basins…

Lithium resources are mainly concentrated in Chile, Bolivia and Argentina, also known as the lithium triangle. Over 50 per cent of lithium resources are believed to be located in the lithium triangle. Total world resources are estimated to be about 62 million tons…The largest lithium reserves are in Chile, which holds approximately 58 per cent of the world total. Australia and Argentina hold approximately 19 per cent and 14 per cent in the form of rock and brine deposits respectively…

A substantial part of lithium is used in the fast-growing sector of rechargeable batteries. For example, lithium salt, such as LiPF6 in an organic solution, is used as an electrolyte in lithium-ion battery technology. The application of lithium in batteries ranges from small rechargeable batteries used for electronic devices such as mobile phones, laptops, cameras to high power rechargeable lithium storage batteries for electric vehicles and power storage.

Natural graphite

The total identified world graphite resources are estimated to be approximately 1.5 billion tons of which approximately one-half is flake graphite. Global graphite reserves are estimated at 300 million tons. The largest reserves of natural graphite are in Turkey, China and Brazil accounting for about 31 per cent, 25 per cent and 24 per cent respectively of the world total…

The use of graphite is growing in emerging renewable technology such as large-scale fuel cell, anodes in rechargeable batteries, solar cells and nuclear reactors, which indirectly contributes to the mitigation of GHGs.

Manganese

The total world land-based manganese resources including reserves and rocks sufficiently enriched in manganese to be ores in the future are large but unevenly distributed across the earth. The largest resources of land based manganese are in South Africa accounting for about 74 per cent of the world total, and Ukraine accounts for about 10 per cent...

Land-based world manganese reserves are estimated at 760 million tons, with South Africa, Ukraine and Brazil accounting for almost 63 per cent of the total...The most important non-metallurgical application of manganese is in disposable and rechargeable batteries. It is favoured in cathode chemistries in the LIB because it offers energy density, power output, thermal stability, faster charging time, and shelf life. More recently manganese is increasingly being used in making cathode materials in NMC lithium ion batteries.

Production of Raw Materials

A few countries dominate production of the raw materials used in LIBs: cobalt is mainly produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lithium in Australia and Chile, graphite in China and Brazil, and manganese in South Africa and Australia.

Drivers of Production

The underlying factor influencing the increasing production of cobalt, lithium, manganese and natural graphite is the rising demand for electric vehicles. The latter, in turn, is largely driven by policies that encourage the mitigation of greenhouse gases coupled with incentives for zero-and low-emissions vehicles, economic instruments that help bridge the cost gap between electric and conventional vehicles and support for the deployment of charging infrastructure...

Challenges of Exploitation

The exploitation of raw materials discussed in this report can have social and environmental implications. For example, most of the cobalt supplied to global markets originates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of which 20 per cent comes from artisanal mines where child labour and human rights issues have been identified. Up to 40,000 children are estimated to be working in extremely dangerous conditions, with inadequate safety equipment, for very little money in the mines in Southern Katanga. The children are exposed to multiple physical risks and psychological violations and abuse, only to earn a meagre income to support their families…

The two forms of lithium mining (brine and rock extraction) also present social and environmental risks. For example, indigenous communities that have lived in the Andean region of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina (which holds more than half the world’s supply of lithium beneath its salt flats) for centuries must contend with miners for access to communal land and water.

The mining industry depends on a large amount of groundwater in one of the driest desert regions in the world to pump out brines from drilled wells. Some estimates show that approximately 1.9 million litres of water is needed to produce a tonne of lithium.


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April-June 2022