Overview of the Development of Global and Chinese Lithium Mining Markets of 2024 year

Overview of the Development of Global and Chinese Lithium Mining Markets of 2024 year

Analyzed over 200 lithium mineral resources worldwide and in China, including ore, salt lakes, clay, geothermal and other lithium mineral resources.

1、 Definition of Lithium Ore

Lithium is the lightest and least dense solid element in the periodic table, and also the metal element with the lowest standard electrode potential, highest electrochemical equivalent, and lightest in nature. Therefore, it is considered a natural battery metal with long-term demand rigidity.

Due to the reactive nature of lithium, it does not naturally exist in its pure metallic form, but rather exists in the form of compounds in minerals and salts.

Given the abundant global lithium resources, with the establishment of a comprehensive supply system, it is expected to support the large-scale demand for power and energy storage applications worldwide. However, lithium resources have uneven distribution globally and lack the characteristics of large-scale, high-grade, and easily exploitable high-quality projects. In addition to resource endowment, the lithium extraction process also has a significant impact on cost. With the increasingly strict requirements for quality and consistency in downstream power batteries, various lithium extraction technologies, deep processing technologies for lithium products, and the quality of battery grade lithium compound products will have a profound impact on the development trend of the lithium industry chain.

The content of lithium in the Earth's crust is about 0.0065%, and more than 150 types of lithium minerals and lithium containing minerals have been found in nature.

Lithium ore resources are one of the metallic mineral resources, referring to lithium ore reserves, basic reserves, and resource quantity.

Basic reserves: It is a part of identifying mineral reserves, which meets the indicators required for current mining and production, including grade, quality, thickness, mining technical conditions, etc. It is controlled and proven through detailed exploration, and is considered economic and marginal economic through feasibility studies and pre feasibility studies. It is expressed in the quantity of reserves without deducting design mining losses.

Reserve: refers to the economically recoverable portion of the basic reserve, which has undergone research and corresponding modifications on various factors such as economy, mining, beneficiation, environment, law, market, society, and government at the time of pre feasibility study, feasibility study, or annual mining plan preparation. The results show that it is economically recoverable or has already been mined at that time, expressed as the actual amount that can be mined after deducting design and mining losses. According to the different stages of geological reliability and feasibility evaluation, it can be divided into recoverable reserves and pre recoverable reserves.

Resource quantity: refers to a portion of identified mineral resources and potential mineral resources. Including mineral resources confirmed as sub marginal economy through feasibility and pre feasibility studies, as well as mineral resources with inherent economy that have not undergone feasibility or pre feasibility studies through exploration, and mineral resources predicted after pre investigation.

Currently, China is implementing the "Classification of Solid Mineral Resources/Reserves" (GB/T17766-1999). This classification divides mineral resource reserves into two major categories, three subcategories, and 16 sub categories.

The two main categories are: identifying mineral resources and potential mineral resources

The three subcategories are: reserves, basic reserves, and resource reserves. Reserves are economically recoverable mineral resources, basic reserves are all in-situ mineral resources that generate reserves, and resource resources are all in-situ mineral resources that have not yet reached economically recoverable conditions.

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The classification of mineral resource reserves used by the mining industry in foreign market economy countries belongs to the classification system of the International Reporting Standards Committee for Mineral Reserves (CRIRSCO). CRIRSCO has developed a template for international reporting standards for mineral reserves, which currently includes countries such as Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Chile, and Russia.

Taking the JORC Code in Australia as an example, the JORC Code divides mineral resource reserves into three major categories and six sub categories.

Category 1: Reserves

It is an immediately exploitable and recoverable mineral quantity, including two types: Proven Reserve and Probable Reserve.

Second category: Resource quantity

It refers to the total in-situ mineral resources that currently do not meet the requirements for mining and utilization, but are expected to be eventually mined and utilized, including three types: measured reserves, indicated reserves, and inferred reserves.

The third category: exploration targets

Exploration Results are target bodies inferred from mineralized outcrops or geochemical anomalies, which can serve as a basis for further deployment of exploration projects and discovery of new ore bodies. Generally, only the spatial range is delineated for exploration targets, and the resource quantity is not estimated.

2、 Lithium ore classification

（1） Lithium ore type

Due to the reactive nature of lithium, it does not naturally exist in its pure metallic form, but rather exists in the form of compounds in minerals and salts.

More than 150 types of lithium minerals and lithium containing minerals have been discovered in nature. There are five main types of lithium deposits: pegmatite deposits, brine deposits, seawater deposits, hot spring deposits, and sedimentary deposits. Lithium exists in ionic form in brine and in compound form in rocks. From the current supply composition of lithium resources, it mainly includes two parts: one is lithium extracted from salt lake brine, and the lithium chemical products produced from salt lake brine are mainly lithium carbonate and lithium chloride; The second is lithium ore, and the lithium ore products sorted from the ore are mainly spodumene, lithium mica, etc.

Granite pegmatite type lithium ore is the main type of early ore lithium extraction, generally produced in metasomatic pegmatite veins, and mostly has obvious zoning. This type of lithium deposit is widely distributed and mainly occurs in tectonic dome areas and non orogenic environments on the margins of accretionary continents. Representative deposits include the Greenbushes lithium deposit in Australia and the methyl carbonate lithium beryllium deposit in China.

Sedimentary lithium deposits mainly occur in sedimentary basins from the Oligocene to the Miocene, and are mainly produced in the form of clay rocks or impact layers, swamp facies, lake facies, and combination facies in sedimentary basins. The exploration level is relatively low. Rich lithium clay type lithium mines are mainly distributed in Kings Valley, Nevada, USA and the plateau valleys of central and southern Mexico. In addition, in recent years, another type of ultra large sedimentary lithium boron deposit has been discovered in the Jadar Basin of Serbia, with its unique lithium bearing mineral being hydroborosilicate nanolithite.

The distribution of oilfield brine deposits and geothermal brine lithium deposits is relatively limited. The discovered oilfield brine deposits include the Smackover deposit in Texas, USA, and geothermal brine lithium deposits distributed in the Hills area of southern California, USA. Due to advances in exploration technology and work, it is difficult to evaluate the global resource potential of these two types of deposits.

Early scholars believed that seawater could serve as a potential resource for lithium. Based on previous research and arguments from both technical and cost perspectives, it is believed that lithium extraction from seawater is not feasible in practical applications for at least the next few decades.

According to the existing development technology of lithium mineral resources, granite pegmatite type (spodumene, lithium mica) and salt lake brine type lithium mineral resources are the main lithium resources for exploration and mining.

（2） Brine deposit

1. Salt Lake Brine

Brine type lithium mines mainly include carbonate type, sulfate type, and halide type. The first two are the main types of salt lake lithium development, especially the carbonate type salt lake has a very low magnesium lithium ratio and can be directly precipitated from brine, making it the best choice for lithium production.

The global salt lake brine type lithium deposits are mainly distributed in enclosed basins in arid climate zones within the range of 30-40 degrees north latitude and 20-30 degrees south latitude, such as the Andean Plateau in South America, the western United States, and the Qinghai Tibet Plateau in China. The main salt lakes with large reserves in South America are Uyuni Salt Lake in Bolivia, Atacama Salt Lake in Chile, and Hombre Muerto Salt Lake in Argentina. These three major salt lakes supply 50% of the world's lithium products. These brine type lithium mines are formed by the long-term erosion of lithium rich rocks by closed inland lakes over billions of years, dissolving lithium in the water and gradually evaporating with the evaporation of lake water.

At present, Atacama Salt Lake in Chile, Hombre Muerto Salt Lake in Argentina, Yinfeng in the United States, Qaidam Basin Salt Lake in Qinghai, China and Zabuye Lake in Xizang are under development and production.

Low magnesium lithium ratio brine: The magnesium lithium ratio is below 10, the lithium content is high, and it can be concentrated by sun exposure. The process is simple and has been widely industrialized. This type of salt lake is mainly distributed in South and North America, such as the Atacama Salt Lake in Chile, which is the world's highest quality brine resource and currently the most developed salt lake.

High magnesium lithium ratio brine: It has high technical difficulty, complex process, and high cost, including the West and East Taiwan Jinan and Yiliping salt lake groups in China, with a magnesium lithium ratio of over 40, requiring the consumption of a large amount of potassium to form carnallite to remove magnesium, resulting in low comprehensive benefits. The Uyuni Salt Lake in Bolivia, although the largest in area and reserves in the world, experiences floods every year and the cost of lithium extraction is high, so it still needs to be developed.

Carbonate brine: Xizang's salt lakes are mainly carbonate type and easy to extract. The lithium content in Zabuyecuo, Xizang, is as high as 0.12%, second only to Atacama Salt Lake. However, at an altitude of 4400 meters, Zabuyetsu has a cold climate, long winters, and is located in a remote area. The road distance to Lhasa reaches 1500 kilometers, making transportation quite inconvenient. Many natural conditions limit the development of lithium resources in Zabuyetsu.

2. Geothermal brine

Geothermal lithium extraction belongs to atypical brine lithium extraction. In addition to typical salt lake brine, there are also abundant potassium and lithium resources in oilfield water, deep marine brine, and geothermal brine. Due to the difficulty of constructing salt fields for evaporation and concentration in such projects, innovative lithium extraction technologies such as brine adsorption must be adopted.

Given the economic issues of drilling deep brine wells, the unpredictable sustainability of brine extraction, the conflict between oil and gas extraction and lithium extraction, some projects not allowing brine reinjection, and the feasibility of comprehensive utilization, geothermal lithium extraction has not yet been commercialized.

At present, the projects that have made progress in extracting lithium from geothermal brine are mainly focused on the Upper Rhine Valley in Europe and the Salton Sea in the United States.

The Vulcan Energy Resources geothermal brine lithium mine project is located in the Upper Rhine Valley of Germany. The Upper Rhine Valley is located in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany and is considered one of the regions with the largest lithium reserves in the world.

Berkshire Hathaway, founded by Warren Buffett, has deployed geothermal lithium extraction projects in the Salton Sea, located in the southernmost part of California, USA.

In China, geothermal lithium extraction is mainly located in the western region. On January 20, 2023, when Wanlishi received an investigation from the institution, it said that the holding subsidiary Wanlishi Resources Company, Hangzhou Jinjiang Group and Yangyi Power Station in Dangxiong County signed the Cooperation Agreement on Initiating the Establishment of a Joint Venture to Develop the Comprehensive Utilization Project of Xizang Yangyi Geothermal Water, and proposed to establish a joint venture for the comprehensive utilization of geothermal water resources. The project technology will use Xinjiang Tailixin TMS adsorption lithium extraction technology. The first phase plans to produce lithium carbonate with a production capacity of no less than 500 tons per year, with an investment of about 30 million yuan and a construction period of 6 months. The subsequent second phase plans to build a production capacity of no less than 1500 tons per year.

（3） Weijing Salt Lithium Ore

Granite pegmatite lithium deposits are mainly distributed in Australia, Canada, Finland, China, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Congo. Although pegmatite lithium deposits have also been discovered in India and France, they do not have commercial development value.

As mineral raw materials for lithium production, the main ones are spodumene, lithium mica, phosphate lithium aluminate, lithium feldspar, and iron lithium mica, among which the first three minerals are the most important.

The global spodumene deposits are mainly distributed in Australia, Canada, Zimbabwe, Congo, Brazil, and China; Lithium mica ore is mainly distributed in Zimbabwe, Canada, the United States, Mexico, and China.

1. Lithium pyroxene

Lithium pyroxene is one of the main lithium containing minerals, also known as type 2 lithium pyroxene, mainly generated in granite pegmatite veins. Unlike other pyroxene minerals, spodumene is a type of pegmatite mineral that is often associated with crystals, tourmaline, beryl, and other minerals.

The theoretical content of lithium oxide in spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) is 8.03%. Due to some lithium being replaced by sodium and potassium, the lithium oxide content is usually 6% -7.5%.

As the main source of lithium minerals in the industrial industry, the demand for spodumene in ceramics, metallurgy, special glass, chemical industry, and other fields is rapidly increasing. Lithium pyroxene is divided into three categories based on its use, chemical composition, and smelting process requirements: chemical grade lithium pyroxene, ceramic grade lithium pyroxene, and low iron lithium pyroxene.

Adding spodumene to the ceramic embryo serves as both a flux and an important component to ensure the formation of low thermal expansion crystals. Lithium pyroxene is also used in the glass and enamel industries. Introducing spodumene into glass and enamel glaze formulas can obtain two types of low expansion crystals, β - spodumene and quartz, within a wide range of compositions. Without the need for crystal nuclei, the crystal seeds can crystallize uniformly at the same time, thereby improving mechanical strength and thermal vibration resistance.

Due to spodumene being the primary mineral source for the lithium industry, it is generally used to produce lithium as a chemical raw material. If lithium hydroxide is produced using processes including calcination, hot water filtration, and evaporation crystallization; Some first calcine spodumene and then react with sulfuric acid to produce lithium sulfate, or convert it into lithium carbonate with baking soda. Simple lithium compounds can be obtained by electrolysis to produce metallic lithium.

2. Lithium mica

Lithium mica is a basic aluminosilicate of potassium and lithium, belonging to the mica mineral family. Lithium mica is generally only produced in granite pegmatite, with colors of purple and pink and can be light to colorless. It has a pearl luster and appears as short columns, small sheet aggregates, or large plate-like crystals. Lithium mica often contains rubidium and cesium, which are important raw materials for extracting these rare metals.

The chemical composition of lithium mica is K {Li2-xAl1+x [Al2xSi4-2xO10] (OH, F) 2} (x=0-0.5), and its composition is extremely complex. In addition to lithium oxide, there are more than 50% silicon dioxide, about 30% aluminum oxide, etc. Lithium mica ore has a low grade and a lithium content 50% lower than spodumene. The lithium oxide content of lithium mica concentrate after mining and selection is usually 2.0-3.5%, often containing rubidium, cesium, etc. Moreover, the extraction of lithium generates a large amount of tailings and the processing of tailings is difficult and costly, which limits the development and utilization of lithium mica ore.

3. Phosphate lithium aluminate

Lithium phosphate aluminum ore is a lithium mineral with the highest lithium content, with a pure mineral lithium oxide content of 10.1%. The mined ore has a lithium oxide grade of over 7%. The phosphate lithium aluminate produced in Nanping granite pegmatite in Fujian Province contains 9.29% lithium oxide.

China has mines in Jiangxi and Fujian provinces. Jiangxi has poor product categories and no mining value, so mining is not allowed in Fujian. The value of foreign mining is relatively high, but currently there are no large-scale mines. In the short term, lithium phosphate aluminum ore will not become the main source of lithium salts.

（4） Clay lithium mine

In addition to salt lakes and ores, there are also lithium mines that exist in the form of clay. Clay lithium ore is not only rich in lithium, but also in iron. For downstream enterprises producing lithium iron phosphate, it not only meets the needs of lithium carbonate, but also provides an iron source.

Thanks to the unique advantages of lithium clay resources, the lithium extraction process using lithium clay can simultaneously combine the advantages of extracting lithium from ores and salt lakes. It can complete the lithium extraction process in a short period of time at a speed similar to that of extracting lithium from ores, and can also achieve lithium extraction at a lower cost similar to that of extracting lithium from brine.

The Sonora project is a lithium clay mine extraction project located in Mexico, and is currently one of the largest lithium resource projects in the world.

In China, the chief scientist of the National Key R&D Program Project - Demonstration Project of Deep Exploration Technology for Rare Mineral Resources Bases, and researcher Wen Hanjie from the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed a new deposit type and mineralization model of "carbonate clay type lithium deposits". According to the newly established mineralization model, the research team has discovered a potential giant lithium resource base in the central Yunnan Basin. The ore body is enriched in the Lower Permian Inverted Stone Formation, which is a set of "continental margin coastal" sedimentary rock layers. The project team conducted scientific research demonstration exploration in the two target areas delineated in this area.

On December 16, 2020, the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a paper titled "Research Progress on Lithium Extraction Technology from Clay type Lithium Ore Resources", which mentioned that after medium temperature roasting and activation treatment, carbonate clay type lithium ore (currently the clay lithium ore in southwestern China) can be leached under certain reaction conditions, achieving an extraction rate of over 80%, and has important application prospects.

3、 Lithium concentrate

Lithium concentrate is a raw material selected from lithium bearing ores for lithium extraction. Lithium minerals are processed into concentrated products through mineral processing, which can be used as raw materials for direct consumption or for further conversion and manufacturing of refined lithium products and derivatives.

Lithium concentrate products include technical grade lithium concentrate and chemical grade lithium concentrate.

Industrial grade lithium concentrate is mainly sold to the glass and ceramic markets, while chemical grade lithium concentrate is mainly used to convert into lithium chemicals for sale to lithium chemical processing enterprises. The main difference between these two products lies in the content of lithium and iron and their particle size, and this type of business is generally not affected by seasonal changes and influences.

The lithium oxide content in technical grade lithium concentrate is 5.0% to 7.2%, while the lithium oxide content in chemical grade lithium concentrate is 6%.

Taking Tianqi Lithium as an example, the technical grade lithium concentrate obtained by the company is mainly sold to glass, ceramics and porcelain industries in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The chemical grade lithium concentrate obtained is mainly used for the production of four categories of lithium chemical products, namely lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride and metallic lithium. At present, lithium compounds are mainly produced by the production bases in Shehong, Sichuan, Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu and Tongliang, Chongqing.

4、 Lithium brine concentrate

Lithium in salt lake brine is directly a soluble lithium compound. Lithium containing brine exists in salt or dry salt lakes and is pumped to the surface. It is typically produced through solar evaporation, ion exchange, or other upgraded technologies to produce lithium brine concentrates with lithium content ranging from 3.0% to 6.0%, which can then be further processed into refined lithium products.

5、 Lithium ore grade

(1) The grade of lithium ore (solid) mainly refers to the lithium oxide content (%), while lithium pyroxene and lithium mica clay lithium ore are expressed as the percentage content of lithium oxide.

(2) The grade of liquid lithium ore (salt lake, geothermal) mainly refers to indicators such as lithium ion concentration (mg/L) and magnesium lithium ratio to indicate grade.

6、 Lithium carbonate equivalent

Lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), a unit of measurement for lithium.

Refers to the equivalent amount of lithium carbonate that can be actually produced in solid/liquid lithium ore. Because lithium is a highly reactive metal that typically exists in a compound state, and due to varying lithium content, it is ultimately reflected in economic data and generally needs to be converted into LCE.