Question

The global race for Lithium is intensifying in the wake of the growing use of the mineral in various electronic appliances especially batteries. In this context, provide an account of the distribution of Lithium around the world and what steps the Government of India has taken to secure access to this strategicmineral.?

Answer 1

Approach:

• In the introduction, provide context about the rising importance of Lithium
• Write about the distribution of Lithium resources around the world.
• Write about India’s dependence on imports as India doesn’t have any proven reserves of Lithium.
• Write steps taken by GOI to secure access to this strategic mineral.

India is scrambling to acquire lithium mines abroad, along with other resources, to ensure that it has access to such strategic minerals, with China having already taken a substantial lead in the race, much in the manner that it has done so in oil and gas.
Lithium is a critical element in batteries that power mobile phones, laptops and electric vehicles, the centerpiece of future transport solutions. The global race the mineral is intensifying in the wake of the growing use.
Consumers demanded longer-lasting, smaller batteries that were more powerful, more reliable and suitable for an expanding range of applications longer-lasting, smaller batteries that were more powerful, more reliable and suitable for an expanding range of applications.
Lithium is one element that has proved to satisfy the dozens of necessary specifications. These batteries are commonly used in portable electronic devices, solar power plants as well as electric vehicles due to their high energy density and high charge and discharge rate capabilities, as compared with another type of batteries such as Ni-MH or Lead Acid.
Lithium, the third element in the periodic table, is a soft, highly reactive, silver-white metal the lightest and least dense solid element on the planet.
The world derives the vast majority of its lithium supply by extracting the metal from a mineral called spodumene or from the evaporation of brine deposits.

Distribution of Lithium
A small number of countries contain most of the world's spodumene reserves and brine deposits.
Australia,Argentina and Chile are the world's top lithium producers, while Bolivia holds the largest potential resources. Chile, Argentina and Bolivia- known as ‘Lithium Triangle’ due to vast reserves of Lithium.
China, meanwhile, is also a significant producer. Together, these five countries account for most of the world's lithium supply.


India has no known sources of lithium and access to Lithium is critical to the success of its plan to convert most of its vehicles to electric power in about a decade or so.

Almost 100% of Li-ion batteries or cells are imported in India. India is heavily dependent on China, Taiwan and Japan for imports, especially of batteries. Considering this, India needs to secure access to Lithium reserves.

Steps taken by the Indian government to Secure access to Lithium reserves:

• The government has directed three state-owned mineral companies (National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Hindustan Copper (HCL) and Mineral Exploration Corp. Ltd (MECL)) to team up for a new venture tasked with scouting and acquiring strategic mineral assets abroad.
• Khanij Bidesh India Ltd., (KABIL) consortium of three PSU companies mentioned above also prospecting to secure minerals from Argentina, Chile.
• Also high level visits like President of India visiting these South American countries demonstrates a proactive and aggressive stance to secure lithium sourcing.

• India has leveraged its way into the Bolivian lithium reserves after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Bolivia for development and industrial use of lithium.
• India has set up a National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage.
• An inter-ministerial steering committee has also been set up which is chaired by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant. The committee comprises secretaries from the ministries of road transport and highways, power, new and renewable energy, and the departments of science and technology, heavy industries, industrial policy and promotion and has held numerous meetings to expedite the plan.
• The government to set up R&D and technology development centres for indigenous lithium-ion battery manufacturing plants : BHEL and LIBCOIN to Build India’s First Lithium-Ion GigaFactory.
• In the first phase, Rs 165 crore will be invested to produce li-ion cells having a total storage capacity of 200,000 Ah (Ampere hour) per day.

The Indian government’s relatively slow progress in securing lithium reserves could be a big problem for the energy storage industry in the country. Considering the strategic need of the Lithium, India needs to go on a war-footing to secure unhindered access to Lithium reserves.