Lithium is increasingly being defined as a critical and strategic metal. The US Senate has included lithium in its Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2011. Further, lithium has been declared a strategic metal in the lithium-producing South American countries. For example, in Argentina the governing body of Jujuy province has designated lithium as a strategic metal.
Lithium is identified as a critical metal and a green minor metal by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The latter designation refers to the role that lithium-based compounds will play in advancing cleaner technologies.
The value and interest in lithium is also reflected in the increased number of junior exploration companies that are focused on developing new lithium sources. These sources span from traditional salars (eg. Lithium Americas, Orocobre Ltd) to hard rock pegmatite ores (eg. Canada Lithium Corp., Galaxy Resources Ltd, Nemaska Exploration), to geothermal brines (eg. Simbol Materials) and oilfield brines...