In the past year, the prices of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide have more than doubled as the use of lithium-ion batteries in the electrification of automobiles and energy storage systems continues to drive demand for this key metal.

CHANTELLE KOTZE writes, however, this has led to concerns about whether lithium supply can meet the strong demand growth, and the global transition to a low-carbon economy continues to support this demand.

As some countries in the world pledge to achieve decarbonization goals to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, the shift to electrification has led to a rapid increase in the demand for batteries used in electric vehicle sales and manufacturing.

According to Roskill, a metal commodity information service company, the increase in demand is translating through the supply chain into a significant increase in demand for battery raw materials, and lithium is one of them.

Roskill said that the demand for lithium chemicals used in battery manufacturing is facing a very high growth rate in the lithium market, while at the same time bringing new capacity at the resource level and lithium chemical manufacturing level.

Roskill said in a September statement that this predicted growth rate may lead to a shortage of lithium chemicals, which will bring new challenges to the lithium industry.

According to Roskill, the market balance of spodumene concentrates is heavily dependent on commercialized new projects to maintain a small amount of overproduction for most of the 2020s, even though Roskill said that with chemical converters derived from lithium.

As for the overall prospects of refined lithium chemicals, Roskil predicts that by 2028, when demand growth exceeds the available supply, there will be a small excess of supply.

Roskill said that due to strong demand growth and limited supply related to the unfavorable economic environment in 2019 and 2020, it is expected that there will be a supply shortage in the market balance of battery-grade lithium chemicals in the next few years.

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Although the calculated supply gap is real, Roskill does not believe that the level of the gap is possible, because as the exploration work increases, additional supplies may be commissioned, which will be supplemented by changes in upstream and downstream production technology.

Roskill further believes that the supplier's response to price increases and material shortages may also be supplemented by demand responses. If material supply restrictions increase, lithium demand will decrease.

In order to avoid the continuous expansion of the supply gap, which may lead to the destruction, substitution or thrift of lithium demand in key end markets, lithium producers need favorable lithium prices to attract investment and stimulate the development of lithium resources.

The price of lithium carbonate evaluated by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, an energy storage mineral supply chain price reporting agency, hit a record high at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter when China's supply was limited and the demand for lithium-ion batteries continued to be high.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence stated in an October statement: "The limited available supply in the Chinese domestic market has pushed the price of lithium carbonate to these new levels, and demand for lithium-ion batteries has remained high after a year of significant growth. And stability."

According to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, high nickel cathode chemicals that require lithium hydroxide have not been deployed as quickly as expected. At the same time, they have lower energy density, but cheaper lithium iron phosphate or LFP cathodes dominate Chinese batteries. A few months in the production industry.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence stated in October that China’s strong demand for LFP chemical cathodes has caused the price of lithium carbonate to have a historically unusual premium over lithium hydroxide.

"Fundamentally speaking, as demand continues to exceed the supply of raw materials and chemicals, there is almost no foreseeable downside risk in the price of carbonate or hydroxide in the short term. The lithium industry is indeed in the throes of recent price increases, and prices have further set a record. It is expected in the next few months," the price reporting agency said.

Lithium quality in the spotlight

As producers speed up their exploration plans to provide new lithium supplies online as demand increases, not only do they face the production of sufficient quantities of materials, but it is also expected that product quality will become increasingly important. Therefore, manufacturers must also ensure that the lithium they produce meets the strict grade and quality specifications of battery manufacturers.

Clariant, a Swiss multinational specialty chemicals company, emphasized the importance of efficiently selecting lithium from hard rock lithium ore, which is produced through hard rock mining rather than brine operations, in a webinar held in September.

Suresh Raju, global technical manager of Clariant Industrial Minerals, pointed out that the typical composition of lithium hard rock ore contains about 12% of diopside and spodumene as lithium minerals, and quartz, mica, and feldspar as gangue minerals in pegmatite deposits. He said that the presence of these gangue minerals in hard rock ore makes the beneficiation of lithium-bearing minerals challenging because they have very similar properties to lithium-bearing minerals.

Raju said that although the type of beneficiation circuit used depends on the minerals present, multi-stage dense media separation (DMS) is often used to separate by-products such as tin and tantalum and remove silicate gangue. The DMS loop significantly improves the next stage of the beneficiation process that usually requires flotation.

Froth flotation is the most widely used technology for the beneficiation of lithium-containing minerals such as spodumene and lapholite. Anion direct flotation is widely used in spodumene concentration. However, Raju said that reverse flotation can also be used to achieve quality specifications. Raju said that this is usually followed by a multi-step cleaning process to achieve the specified quality goals.

Raju said that the combination of anion and cation flotation is used for the beneficiation of other lithium-containing minerals, such as spodumite and lepidolite.

High-intensity magnetic separation is also usually used to reduce a large amount of iron-containing gangue minerals, such as iron oxide, amphibole and tourmaline, so that the final concentrate reaches the required iron content level.

Raju said in the webinar that these general processes consisting of multi-stage DMS, followed by desliming before flotation, followed by high-intensity magnetic separation to remove iron-containing minerals, have been found to be effective in removing lithium minerals from Hard rock ore is concentrated to a marketable grade, and similar processes have been practiced in some lithium hard rock mines around the world.

However, Ruju emphasized that different flotation steps can be used in this process to help concentrate the lithium concentrate to approximately 6% lithium oxide, which is in line with the standard grade for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries.

Mica and feldspar can be floated to remove most of the gangue minerals, and the tailings of this flotation step can be subjected to spodumene flotation, in which the spodumene is cleaned to achieve the required lithium oxide quality of more than 6%.

Raju explained that next, the tailings of this flotation step will undergo further flotation of lapholite and lepidolite (if any) to obtain 4-5% lithium oxide concentrate.

During the webinar, Clariant’s development scientist Tim Walsh also emphasized the company’s ability to produce with correct selectivity, kinetics and mineral recovery in laboratory scale, pilot scale and full-scale production. Customized collectors for lithium ore at a high rate to ensure the best recovery.

Compared with the standard fatty acid dosage, Clariant's lithium trapping agent consumption is significantly reduced, thereby improving the flotation efficiency and better filtration performance. This also means reducing chemical exposure to people and the environment, reducing transportation and handling, reducing emissions, reducing chemicals in waste streams, and reducing energy consumption.

Walsh said that as the ore grade changes, Clariant will continue to develop more efficient collectors to achieve better recovery, selectivity and metallurgical performance.

With the development of next-generation battery technology, manufacturers, battery manufacturers, and downstream original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have many opportunities.

However, the sustainable supply of lithium-ion batteries has become and will increasingly become a key strategic industry priority. OEMs are facing increasingly stringent scrutiny on whether the raw materials and components used in their products are sustainably sourced, which may lead to Disruptions are in multiple stages of the supply chain.

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