2024-06-15 11:41:03
The identify of the lake doesn’t evoke any nice associations. However the Lifeless Man’s Salt Lake in Argentina, identified in Spanish as Salar del Hombre Muerto, is a magnet for contemporary treasure hunters.
Within the thick water of the lake, underneath the crust of salt, there’s a substance that electrical automobiles want as a lot as gasoline for airplanes. That is lithium, the lightest of all metals.
Lithium is a vital part of compact batteries for cell phones, laptops, bicycles and electrical automobiles.
Every electrical automobile battery accommodates about 10 kilograms of this steel.
A ton of lithium presently prices about 23 thousand. euros.
328.1 thousand tons – that is the anticipated demand for this steel on this planet within the 2040s. In 2018, it reached solely 7460 tons.
The tow vehicles have already moved
For a very long time, the salt lake within the Argentine Andes was one of the crucial distant corners of the planet Earth.
From a satellite tv for pc view, it seems to be like a brilliant spot in the midst of a rocky desert at an altitude of virtually 4,000 meters.
Right here the highland solar shines and the nights are very chilly.
However now, unpaved roads are continually being pushed by vehicles. They transport building supplies, bulldozers and building components for the brand new factories that will probably be constructed across the salt lake.
Argentina, Bolivia and Chile are referred to as the Golden Lithium Triangle. 53 p.c lies on this area. of the world’s lithium and 46 p.c licensed world assets – these which can be economically and technically worthwhile to extract.
Essentially the most well-known lithium useful resource mining space is the salt lakes in Chile’s Atacama desert.
Australia leads the way in which
Europe additionally has lithium. For instance, a big deposit within the Czech Republic, north of the nation’s capital, Prague.
In Germany, roughly 15 million tons of lithium are dissolved within the thermal water of the Higher Rhine basin close to Freiburg. This is among the largest deposits on this planet.
Australia presently produces 47 p.c of the world’s lithium. It’s adopted by Chile (30%), China (14.6%) and Argentina (4.7%).
Argentina is prone to turn into the second-largest producer as soon as all of the mines underneath building right here come into operation.
On the one hand, that is because of the great amount of simply and cheaply extracted assets.
One more reason is the legal guidelines, that are way more favorable to personal issues than in neighboring nations.
The leftist governments of Bolivia and Chile outline lithium as a strategic uncooked materials.
Mining of this steel is allowed there solely along with state firms.
However in Argentina, personal issues can acquire licenses from the nation’s provincial governments.
By the way in which, their governors are straightforward to persuade.
The Europeans additionally rotated
Semi-state Chinese language issues have been working in Argentina for a very long time.
Right here, they aren’t topic to the strict compliance necessities of firms whose shares are traded on Western exchanges.
Now that the economist Javier Milei has turn into the president of Argentina, plainly the western nations’ issues have been dealt a greater card. By far the most important investor on this sector is Australia.
The European Union is represented by France, and the Deutsche E-Metalle firm’s mission, which continues to be in its preliminary stage, can also be being applied.
This Dresden-based firm is drilling take a look at wells east of the Salar del Hombre Muerto lake.
Lithium mining in Argentina is especially enticing on account of low taxes (they’re solely three p.c) and simple availability of the uncooked materials.
It’s because pumping brine out of a lake is way simpler than crushing and chemically separating metal-bearing rocks. And far sooner.
Because the brine is pumped into the evaporation ponds on the floor, the excessive altitude solar begins the method of focus.
Throughout this course of, a thick sludge is shaped over a number of months, which is cleaned in a related manufacturing facility and processed into lithium carbonate.
Extraordinarily harmful substance
Nevertheless, there are severe issues on this case.
Lithium is a harmful substance, extremely flammable, explosive and toxic. This alkali steel, when it enters the lungs within the type of mud, could cause varied illnesses.
As well as, the extraction course of requires a number of water. And it’s uncommon and costly within the dry highlands of the Andes.
In 1998, the US concern “Livent” opened the primary manufacturing facility on the Salar del Hombre Muerto. It did not take lengthy for the Trapiche (Rio Trapiche), one of many two streams within the space, to dry up.
Livent, whose common clients embrace German automobile concern BMW, merged with Australian rival Allkem in late 2023 to turn into lithium trade large Arcadium.
Encroaches on native rivers
This concern now needs to the touch the second river – Patos (Rio de Los Patos) and 380 thousand. liters of water per hour directed to manufacturing.
Roman Guitian, head of the local people of Atacamenos del Altiplano, warned about this.
He has been in court docket for years as a result of his nation is not capable of finding sufficient water for its cattle on account of lithium mining.
R. Guitian achieved at the least a partial victory – in March, the best court docket of the Catamarca province confirmed the harm triggered close to Trapice. As well as, the court docket ordered an environmental evaluation of public tasks on the south facet of the lake.
Till that is accomplished, new tasks shouldn’t be accredited.
The choice, which places Catamarca at an obstacle with the opposite lithium-producing provinces of Salta and Jujuy, has been appealed by the provincial governor.
The case will possible be introduced to the Buenos Aires Excessive Courtroom.
However earlier than he decides, Pathos could dry up. What a few native insurgent? R. Guitian has already acquired many demise threats. The identify of the lake shouldn’t be for nothing.
They’re already attempting to make totally different batteries
Automotive trade issues have been the most important customers of lithium in recent times. Subsequently, every of the key nations or, within the case of the European Union, areas strives to have at the least one main battery producer.
In Europe, it’s the Swedish firm “Northvolk”, which secured as a lot as 5 billion this 12 months. EUR financing for a brand new manufacturing line.
However representatives of this trade have already began producing automobiles with sodium-ion batteries. Till now, these have been used for electrical bicycles or electrical accumulators.
Sodium-ion batteries are less expensive, however they’ve the drawback of being extraordinarily heavy in comparison with lithium batteries. Subsequently, for now, automobile producers are attempting to make use of them just for small autos.
In China, a mannequin of the Yiwei model, which makes use of a sodium ion battery, rolled off the meeting strains on the finish of final 12 months.
One other producer of this nation, Jiangling Motors, began to construct one thing comparable. It’s claimed that the machine will have the ability to cowl as much as 252 kilometers on a single cost.
2024-06-15 11:41:03