"White gold" resource battle: Chinese played big all over the world

A lithium battery production workshop in China

Lithium, a metal long hidden from the limelight, is now known as "white gold" because it is essential for the batteries that power electric cars.

Lithium is a silvery-white light metal; It is also the least dense metal. Its English name is Lithium, derived from the Greek word lithos, meaning "stone". The first syllable of Lithos is pronounced "ri". In nature, it mainly exists in the form of spodumene, lepidolite and apatite.

The world's first lithium ore was discovered by Brazilians on a small Swedish island called Utö in the 90s of the 18th century. Discovering that it emits a strong crimson flame when thrown into a fire, Stockholm's Johan August Arfvedson analyzed it and deduced that it contained a previously unknown metal, which he realized was a new alkali metal element and called it lithium. Unlike sodium, however, he failed to separate it by electrolysis. It was not until 1855 that German chemist Robert Bunsen and British chemist Augustus Matthiessen electrolyzed lithium chloride to obtain large chunks of lithium.

From then on, a leading element that will be surprising in the future new energy era of mankind will gradually enter the historical stage.

But before that, before lithium batteries have been used on a large scale, it still has to be in a relatively unknown corner.

Lithium could only play a supporting role in the "trick" earlier, and the main industrial use was only in the glass, ceramics and lubricants sectors, which used a small number of lithium compounds. For example, it is used as a thickener for lubricants in the form of lithium stearate, and lithium-based greases have high water resistance, high temperature resistance and good low temperature performance. If you add lithium lubricant once to some parts of the car, it is enough until the car is scrapped. In the metallurgical industry, the use of lithium energy and oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, sulfur and other substances to react strongly as a deoxidizer and desulfurizer. Lithium removes harmful impurities and gases in casting high-quality copper castings. Among the high-quality special alloy steels required in modern times, lithium is the most ideal material for removing impurities.

Since then, with the development of the aerospace industry, people have gradually discovered the high-energy characteristics of lithium metal, and the energy released by 1kg of lithium through thermonuclear reactions is equivalent to the combustion of more than 20,000 tons of high-quality coal, so lithium is used as one of the best metals for rocket fuel. By using lithium or lithium compounds to make solid fuel, to replace solid propellants, used as the propulsion force of rockets, missiles, spacecraft, not only high energy, large burning speed, but also extremely high specific impulse, can greatly improve the payload of rockets.

But because the content of lithium in the earth's crust is not "rare", although it is known as a "rare metal", there is about 0.0065% lithium in the earth's crust, and its abundance ranks twenty-seventh. As a result, countries around the world attach far less importance to it than it is seen as a competition for strategic resources. The natural reserves of lithium in the earth's crust are 11 million tons, and the recoverable reserves are 4.1 million tons. Until 2004, the world's lithium mining volume was only 20,200 tons, at this rate, enough for humans to use for more than 200 years.

But real "gold" will always shine. In 1991, Sony released the first commercial lithium-ion battery. Subsequently, lithium-ion batteries, as a high-energy storage medium, revolutionized the face of consumer electronics. Lithium has become closely related to people's daily use, and lithium-ion batteries used in digital products such as laptops, mobile phones, and Bluetooth headsets carried by individuals are rich in lithium. Due to the rapid development of lithium-ion batteries, derivation has led to the vigorous development of lithium mine, lithium carbonate and other companies' businesses.

At this time, the real "killer app" of lithium has not yet been used. It has become a high-profile new star, but not yet to the point of being hot. Until the emergence of polymer lithium-ion batteries in 2013, lithium batteries are small in size, long cycle life, fast charging, high energy density, and do not contain lead, cadmium and other toxic heavy metals, so with the incomparable advantages of traditional batteries to overcome lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride, nickel-cadmium batteries, etc., stand out as the first choice for electric vehicle power batteries.

Due to the environmental crisis caused by global warming, countries around the world have launched their own carbon peaking and zero carbon plans, and introduced policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which directly led to the outbreak of the new energy industry, and the energy storage of new energy and the power of electric vehicles are inseparable from lithium batteries. Lithium, finally living as he wanted, became the "king fried" who was loved by thousands of people in metal.

Data is the most boring, but it's also the most convincing. From 2015 to 2018, China's new energy vehicle sales soared from 150,000 to 990,000 units, with an annual growth rate of more than 88%. In 2021, sales of new energy vehicles in China will be about 3 million units, an increase of 169%. Although the government's new energy vehicle purchase subsidies are gradually declining, this still cannot stop people's enthusiasm for new energy vehicle purchases. It is expected that China's new energy vehicle sales will reach 5 million units this year!!

Since 1990, China's lithium battery industry has gradually innovated from the initial imitation and borrowing, from initially only providing consumer batteries to becoming the main supplier of power batteries in the later stage, and China's role in the lithium battery industry has become more and more important. After more than decades of development, China's lithium battery production plants have completed a breakthrough in the number from the first few to the current hundreds, and China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of lithium batteries. Under the dual promotion of policies and subsidies, China's lithium battery industry has given birth to many globally competitive enterprises. In 2021, China accounted for 6 of the world's top ten lithium battery companies, namely CATL, BYD, China Innovation Aviation, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Envision Power and Hive Energy, with a total share of more than 68% of the world. South Korea accounts for 3, namely LG New Energy, SK ON and Samsung SDI. There is only one Panasonic in Japan. Among them, CATL alone has a global installed capacity of 96.7GWh in the field of power batteries, with a market share of 32.6%, ranking first in the world, which is the fifth consecutive year that it has become the world's largest power battery company.

At present, China has a complete and independent lithium industry industrial system, from upstream beneficiation, midstream smelting and separation of the lithium industry, to the production of lithium products, the application of downstream lithium compounds, China is in an overall leading position.

What is more gratifying is that Chinese learned the tragic lesson of losing control of upstream resources in iron ore although the production capacity of iron ore is second to the world, and we took the initiative to deploy a lot of upstream lithium resources around the world in advance. In December 2013, Tianqi Lithium completed the acquisition of Telison, which also kicked off the first round of overseas lithium mine layout of Chinese enterprises. From 2013 to 2018, pioneers such as Tianqi Lithium and Ganfeng Lithium successively participated in and controlled some lithium mines in Australia, South America and other places.

According to data from the 2021 report of the China Geological Administration, the global lithium ore (lithium carbonate equivalent) reserves are 128 million tons, mainly concentrated in the South American lithium triangle - Chile, Argentina, Bolivia three countries adjacent to the region, Australia, Canada, Congo (DRC) and other countries. Global lithium resources of 349 million tons are distributed in 20 countries, mainly in Bolivia (31.98%), Argentina (22.71%), the United States (15.72%) and Australia (5.90%). The salt lake brine lithium ore is mainly distributed in the lithium triangle of South America, the west coast of the United States, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau of China, where a large number of salt lakes have not been systematically explored, and lithium resources have great potential. The pegmatite-type lithium ore is closely related to the orogenic belt, mainly distributed in western Australia, around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other regions, and still has huge prospecting potential.

With the soaring lithium price since 2021, Chinese companies have accelerated prospecting in the world, Africa has considerable lithium reserves, the most abundant Congo (Kinshasa) has proven total lithium reserves of 3 million tons (metal), China Mineral Resources, Zijin Mining, Huayou Cobalt, Ganfeng Lithium and many other enterprises have begun to deploy lithium resources in Africa.

Ganfeng Lithium has a layout in Australia, Argentina, etc., and Tianqi Lithium has a layout in Australia, Chile and other major lithium mining countries. China is already leading the way in upstream lithium resources, and the rest of the world is not fast enough, or strong enough, to respond to China's dominance.

The International Energy Agency said in its World Energy Outlook 2022 report that China accounts for about 60% of the global supply of lithium chemicals. China also produces three-quarters of lithium-ion batteries, according to the International Energy Agency.

As lithium demand rises, major economies are trying to build their own supply chains and reduce their dependence on the rest of the world, including China.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in his State of the Union address in September: "Lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas". In addition to addressing supply security, von der Leyen also stressed the importance of processing technology.

"Today, China controls the global lithium processing industry," she said. "Almost 90% of rare earths and more than 60% of lithium are processed in China."

She was right, but it's a pity that Europe and the United States woke up a little late.

Many companies in Europe are now looking to develop projects centered on ensuring autonomous supply, such as Paris-based mining giant Imerys, which plans to develop a lithium refining and processing project in central France, and the UK, which claims to have the first large-scale lithium refinery facility, to be built in northern England.

Although the victory and defeat have not yet reached the final stage, Chinese this global "white gold" resource battle undoubtedly occupies a favorable position. History proves that it may be more difficult to turn around from the Chinese industry that has the upper hand than to ascend to the sky.

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