Lithium Valley Main Report 2018
metals strongly influences the choice of the recycling process, and the metals that are ultimately recovered. Currently recycled lithium ion batteries (early generation) contain less than 2% of lithium by weight 39 with much higher percentages of cobalt and nickel. Due to the high commodity prices of cobalt and nickel, global industrial lithium ion battery recycling processes prioritise cobalt and nickel ability to provide ethical, sustainable and environmentally robust processes and documentation. This can be a point of differentiation and part of the WA branding approach. 4.7 The current profile of the New Energy metals sector in Western Australia The primary raw materials consumed in current recovery over lithium. As a result, lithium is typically not recovered. Australia also has competitive advantages in the recycling of e-waste due to the
Even so, the future lithium demand forecasts are increasing exponentially (Figure 14 ). The main drivers are forecast to be electric vehicles, distributed generation and utility scale storage. WA also has over one hundred recorded graphite mineralisations in the state, as well as domestic development of technology to produce synthetic graphite. In 2013, Australia’s Economic Demonstrated Resources (EDR) of graphite were estimated to be 969.59kt, almost 20% of which is in WA (176.77kt). 41
leading lithium-ion battery chemistries are lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, copper, aluminium, iron and graphite. Detailed analysis and availability of these can be found in Appendix A. WA has reserves of all the base battery materials including graphite and was one of the main suppliers of lithium for 2017. WA is also adding lithium supply capacity faster than any other country with two new spodumene mines increasing capacity by 34% in 2017. 40
Figure 14: Cumulative impact of electrification on lithium metal consumption 14
Global Annual LME Demand to 2025
2500
Others Medicine Polymers Air conditioning Metal Alloys Grease / Lubricants Glass / Ceramics EVs Utility Behind meter Portables
2250
2000
1750
1500
1250
1000
750
500
250
0
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Source: USGS; Future Smart Strategies (14 March 2018).
39 European Li-Ion Batteries Advanced Manufacturing (ELIBAMA) (2014), Li-ion Battery Recycling, https://elibama. files.wordpress.com/2014/10/v-d-batteries-recycling1.pdf . (Accessed: 01 May 2018) 40 United Stated Geological Survey (2018), Mineral Commodity Summaries 2018, https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/ pubs/mcs/2018/mcs2018.pdf . (Accessed: 01 May 2018) 41 Geosciences Australia (2013), Graphite, http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/minerals/mineral-resources/ graphite. (Accessed: 01 May 2018)
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