OMG Electric Cars Are Going To Save Our Planet: Lithium Mining

We live in a society where we defend causes, ideologies, and people just because the media tells us to, we don’t question, we don’t do research, we don’t make sense of the information, we just blindly support and defend what we are told, the same happens when the media tell us to hate, we just hate, then we proceed to cancel people and companies without being able to logically explain why, we just do because we are told to, umm almost like a herd. And where is this behavior taking us? Nowhere, we are more divided and intolerant to each other than ever.

We were told to celebrate the banning of fracking

Why are we celebrating the dismantling of fracking when lithium mining is not better? Under the disguise of an environmental global “crisis” that needs to be solved, a narrative pushed by the same people that create the environmental issues with their industries while economically benefiting from their “saving” the world proposal and in a pinch gaining total control over humanity.

The Paris Agreement

What do we know about this agreement? Besides, that is eliminating jobs, it hasn’t reduced the carbon footprint despite having most countries on board, which is fueled with trillions of dollars coming from taxpayers... Do we know something else? I have been digging for information but all I keep finding is virtual signaling and redundant articles written by leftist publications, that just want you to hate Trump but don’t provide you with detailed information so you can make up your mind about this so “amazing” agreement y decide for yourself if it worth it or not.

We do know for a fact that one of this agreement's terms and conditions is to force the countries to substitute gas-running cars for electric ones.

What do you know about lithium mining and its impact on the environment? What do we know about their plan to dispose of billions of gas-running cars? What is the plan to discard the billions and billions of battery lithium waste that these electric cars are going to create? What is the plan? What do we know?

I am going to share information about Lithium mining so you can have an idea of what this agreement is pushing us to do. The reality is concerning.

As demand for electric vehicles increases, so does the demand for metal.

Demand is growing across the globe for lithium extraction, mainly driven by the increasing use of lithium in electronic battery technologies and electric vehicles. But where does lithium come from and how is it produced? Here’s an explainer with everything you should know, including the environmental impacts.

Hexagonal formations on the surface of the Salar de Uyuni as a result of salt crystallization from evaporating water. Credit Wikimedia Commons.

Basically, lithium is a highly reactive alkali metal with excellent heat and electrical conductivity. Such characteristics make it especially useful for manufacturing lubricants, pharmaceuticals, glass, and, most importantly, lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and consumer electronics.

But lithium can’t just be found in nature, as it’s highly reactive. Instead, it’s present as a constituent of salts or other compounds. Most of the lithium available in the market can be found as lithium carbonate, a more stable compound that can then be transformed into chemicals or salts.

Lithium salts can be found in underground deposits of clay, mineral ore, and brine, as well as in geothermal water and seawater. Most of the world’s lithium comes from mines, from where it’s extracted. Briny lakes, also known as salars, have the highest concentration of lithium, ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 parts per million.

Lithium Extraction

The salars with the highest lithium concentrations are located in Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile, in an area called “the lithium triangle.” Lithium obtained from salars is then recovered in the form of lithium carbonate, the main raw material that is used by companies in lithium-ion batteries.

Brine mining in salars is normally a very long process that can take from eight months to three years. Mining starts by drilling a hole and pumping brine to the surface. Then they leave it to evaporate for months, first creating a mix of manganese, potassium, borax, and salts which are filtered and placed into another evaporation pool.

Salt mounds in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. The Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest (12 000 km²) and highest (3 700 m) salt flat, ca. 25 times as large as the Bonneville Salt Flats. It’s the remnant of a prehistoric lake surrounded by mountains without drainage outlets. Credit: Luca Galuzzi, Wikimedia Commons.

It will take between 12 and 18 months for that mix to be filtered enough in order to be able to extract the lithium carbonate, also known as white gold. While it’s cheap and effective, the process needs a lot of water, estimated at 500.000 gallons per ton of lithium extracted.

This creates a lot of pressure on local communities living in nearby areas. For example, in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining has caused the region to lose 65% of the region’s water. This has meant impacts on local farmers, who rely on agriculture and cattle for their livelihoods and now need to get the water from somewhere else.

The risks of lithium mining

Lack of water in the region is not just the single potential problem with lithium mining. Toxic chemicals can leak from the evaporation pools to the water supply, such as hydrochloric acid, which is used in the processing of lithium – as well as waste products that can filter out of the brine.

In the United States, Canada, and Australia, lithium is usually extracted from the rock by using more traditional methods. Nevertheless, this still requires the use of chemicals in order to extract it in a useful form. In Nevada, the research found impacts on fish 150 miles downstream from a lithium processing operation, for example.

A report by Friends of the Earth argued that extracting lithium can affect the soil and cause air contamination. In the area of Salar del Hombre Muerto in Argentina, residents complain that lithium-polluted streams are used by humans and livestock, while in Chile there were clashes between mining firms and locals.

Improved technologies for lithium extraction

Researchers argue that there’s a need to develop new extraction technologies that can allow manufacturing batteries in a more environmentally friendly way. That’s why across the world many are looking for new alternatives, such as battery chemistries that replace cobalt and lithium with more common and less toxic materials.

Nevertheless, new batteries that are less energy-dense or more expensive could end up having a negative effect on the environment. “A less durable, yet more sustainable device could entail a larger carbon footprint once you factor in transportation and the extra packaging required,” said Christina Valimaki an analyst at Elsevier.

Being able to recycle lithium-ion plays a key role as well. In Australia, research showed that only 2% of the country’s 3,300 tons of lithium-ion waste was recycled. That can cause problems, as unwanted electronics with batteries can end up in landfills, and metals and ionic fluids can leak into underground water reservoirs.

The Birmingham Energy Institute is using robotics technology initially developed for nuclear power plants to look for ways to remove and dismantle potentially explosive lithium-ion cells from electric vehicles. There were a number of fires at recycling plants where lithium-ion batteries had been stored improperly.

A key problem is that manufacturers are usually secretive regarding what actually goes into the batteries, which makes it difficult to recycle them properly. Now, recovered cells are mostly shredded, leading to a mixture of metals that can be separated using pyrometallurgical techniques.

Growing demand

The global enchantment over mobile devices and all kinds of technological gadgets has led to a growing demand for lithium-ion batteries. That’s especially applicable for electric vehicles, as the world seeks to stop using fossil fuels in the near future to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

By 2025, lithium demand is expected to increase to approximately 1.3 million metric tons of LCE (lithium carbonate equivalent). That’s five times today’s levels. A long list of automakers is responsible for that. For example, Volkswagen hopes to launch more than 70 electric car models in the next 10 years.

The growth in demand for lithium can also be linked to an announcement made by China in 2015, prioritizing electric vehicles as part of its five-year plan. Over the period from 2016 to 2018, lithium prices have more than doubled and are expected to keep growing as the demand expands.

The open question is the consequences that such demand will have on the environment and the communities near the salt mines where the lithium is extracted. The more gadgets and electric vehicles the more lithium that will be needed in the future, raising the need to develop more environmentally friendly extraction techniques.

It is up to us

The COVID lockdowns have been a very traumatizing experience for all of us, not only because of the virus as it is but because of the situations it has unleashed. To me, it has been a slap in my face to know how asleep we have been, how willing to give up our freedoms we are over fear, how powerful fear is, and how cruel people can be, but like in every situation there is always something positive, and in this particular case was seeing our planet resting, and our capacity to pollute everything we touch! In 2020 we experienced cleaner air, wildlife walking freely on roads and parks, clear canals and beaches, views that were covered by smog for decades, and let’s not forget bonding with our loved ones since most people have been working from home and not going out.
SO…

Now we know a lot of jobs can be done from home which means less air contamination and consumption of clothing, restaurants, etc.

Now we hopefully won’t keep living subject to social pressure, being home and cooking our meals. This is not so bad after all.

Now we know we don’t need to jump on an airplane every 24 hours to attend a meeting or a show in my case, we can virtually get a lot done.

I do not agree with governments mandating over our lives BUT we witnessed that by making some adjustments as humans we can accomplish positive changes for our planet and we can also save a lot of money. I am personally going to try to keep some of my new habits, for the sake of the planet and my health, to me, this has been my healthiest year in a long time (physically and economically). My mood has improved (although my tolerance towards those with cognitive dissonance went down the pipe) and my interests are shifting towards better ones, more meaningful ones.