LITHIUM
Drilling for lithium at Lake Resources’ Kachi project in Argentina.
Decarbonisation drive boosts lithium miners COP26 has reinforced the key role the global lithium mining sector will play in the decarbonisation efforts of the future. Anthony Fensom writes.
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he global decarbonisation drive has picked up speed, with the COP26 conference highlighting the need for the transportation industry to curb emissions. With battery metals such as lithium key to the electric vehicle (EV) and battery revolution, lithium miners worldwide are eyeing another wave of demand growth amid record high prices and limited supply. Transportation accounts for 23 per cent of global emissions, giving the lithiumion battery sector a crucial role to play in achieving COP26 targets of global net zero by 2050. Consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) forecasts battery demand
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from the auto sector alone will rise by 40 times between 2020 and the 2040s, as EVs become mainstream. Another forecaster, Wood Mackenzie also sees decarbonisation sparking “unprecedented” demand growth for battery metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. It projects the world will need “an aggressive uptake in EV sales in all regions” to limit global warming. “The lithium market would require 20 new mines the size of Greenbushes – currently the largest in the world – in operation by 2030,” the consultancy explains in its October 13 report. The demand surge together with lagging supply have led to forecasts of a structural
lithium supply deficit widening from 2022 and potentially a “perpetual deficit” through to 2030. “COP26 has highlighted the importance of industry stepping up to contribute to the global decarbonisation drive. Lithium has a crucial role to play and our projects will make a major contribution to electrifying transport in North America,” Sayona managing director Brett Lynch says. The Brisbane-based company has rapidly grown its international footprint in 2021, developing in the Canadian province of Quebec a lithium resource base which it describes as the largest in North America. In June 2021, Sayona announced with its bidding partner Piedmont Lithium the
