Nickel has been the primary base element in rechargeable batteries for decades and most people have heard of nickel cadmium (NiCd) or nickel metal hydride (NiOH) batteries. As battery technology advances the composition of rechargeable batteries is changing and the proportion of New Energy metals in batteries is increasing. As nickel is ubiquitous as the primary metal in rechargeable batteries, it is these New Energy metals that tend to take naming rights. Figure 8 shows the actual lithium value chain in 2017 and the estimated value chain in 2025. There are significant value capture opportunities across the entire New Energy metals processing spectrum. The important questions are ‘where?’ and ‘by whom?’ will this value will be created and captured. While Figure 8 only refers to lithium, it is illustrative of other New Energy metals such as cobalt, vanadium, nickel, etc, which also have similar value chain profiles.
8
Figure 8: Lithium value chain in 2017 – 2025 Without Lithium Valley (AUD) 7
Lithium Value Chain 2017 - 2025 (without Lithium Valley)
0.53% of Value Chain Realised by Australia
Rest of World
Aust
2017
$1.13b $740m $0m $2B
$0m $22.1B $0m $31.1B $0m $156B
Battery Pack/Systems Assembly
Electro-chemical production
Battery Cell Production
Mine/Concentrate Refine/Process
Hard rock vs brine
LiOH/Li 2 Co 3
W. Graphine; Al;Ni; Cu; Si; Co; etc.
Sinter/Assemble
Manufacture, Deploy, Manage
2025
$10.1B $16.2B $2.6B $63.2B $0m $385B $0m $550B $0m $1.68T
0.47% of Value Chain Realised by Australia
China Chile
2017 2025
2017
2017 2025
2025
Korea
2017 Argentina 2017 Australia
2017 2025 Argentina
2025
2017 2025 2017 2025
Japan
2025
EU & USA
Source: Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC); Future Smart Strategies (FSS)
The annual consumption of lithium for batteries is already significant (Figure 9 ) and demand is accelerating. Similarly, the rise in the demand for rare earth elements has been driven by the high technology sectors such as smartphones, televisions, decentralised energy generation, renewable energy and the growth in electric transport. It is expected that the demand increase for rare earths will follow a similar trajectory as lithium.
7 Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (2018), A Lithium Industry in Australia: A value chain analysis for downstreaming Australia’s lithium resources, https://amec.org.au/Public/Media/AMEC_Publications/A_lithium_Industry_ in_Australia.aspx . (Accessed: 01 May 2018)
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