ARTICLES
Australian Companies should develop a Lithium Industry
By George Pinniger
What is Lithium?
One of the main current demands for lithium is based on the
projections for electric vehicle sales. JP Morgan Research
estimates electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles will
account for around 30% of all vehicle sales by 2025, compared
with just 1% in 2016. Currently there are over 20 000 electric
charging stations in Germany, with many other E.U. countries
already joining the rush to provide charging facilities. Even in
Australia there are currently around 800 in all. But sadly we still
find our Government and some of its supporters still sceptical
about the need to change.
Lithium is the third element on the Periodic table of the elements.
Located in column 1, the ‘active metals’, lithium floats on water
as its density is barely half that of water. It also reacts with water,
releasing hydrogen and forming lithium hydroxide, Li OH (though
not nearly as actively as sodium, potassium, rubidium or caesium
– or presumably francium, the radioactive member of the column-1
metals). Lithium is not at all a common element, because the
stability of its nucleus (containing 3 protons and 4 neutrons) is
substantially lower than the nucleus of helium-4, (which has 2
protons and 2 neutrons, identical to α-particles). This means that
far less lithium than helium was formed when the Universe was
created in the “Big Bang”. Furthermore, even when massive stars
explode, and the gigantic amount of energy released does force
normally stable nuclei to combine to form new elements, again
lithium is generated in only miniscule proportions.
Lithium is a soft silver-coloured metal that also reacts with the
oxygen in the air. Its melting-point is 180°C, its boiling-point is
1,335°C, and it burns in air or oxygen with a bright purple-red
flame.
Why is Lithium so Important now?
Lithium could well become one of Australia’s greatest economic
benefits, as the demand for a switch from fossil fuels towards
a future of electric vehicles and renewable energy increases.
Now the lithium-ion battery has become the most popular battery
type worldwide, so the element is in great demand as many car
makers convert to electric vehicles. Furthermore, as most of
the world demands renewable energy sources such as solar or
wind, it’s essential to be able to store the energy from renewable
sources. One of the simplest ways to store electrical energy is by
using batteries, and currently the best are lithium-ion batteries.
According to JP Morgan, that should cause the global demand
for lithium to rise by 8% to 11% per year from 2017, and Australia
seems well placed to capitalise, with our mineral reserves
covering 90% of all the other elements that are necessary for
lithium-ion battery production.
Again, Australia is very fortunate, as the third-largest deposits of
lithium (18%) are found here. Just Chile and China have more,
with Australia currently the world’s largest producer (47%), which
is currently earning the country about AUD$1Bn in revenue.
According to ‘Geoscience Australia’, the production of lithium
here has increased 50% since 2016, and is expected to grow
a further 54% by 2024. Simultaneously, the price of lithium has
also tripled since 2010, with the chief source of the metal’s ore,
Western Australia, now anticipating the demand to be worth $200
million by 2022‑23.
However, it will be far more advantageous for Australia to utilise
these lithium resources beyond simply mining the ore, as far as
to refining it, even to production of batteries, so that much higher
value would be obtained for Australia. A Federal Government
report identified that we currently earn merely 0.53% of the
final value of the lithium that is exported, while about 99.5% of
the actual value of Australian lithium is added through offshore
electro-chemical processing, and the battery cell production and
product assembly, this from an estimated $213 billion! So, whilst
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 68 NO 4