Stockpiling lithium raw material at SQM’s
Salar de Atacama, Chile SQM
Gerry Clarke
Lithium appears caught up with other so-called critical raw materials so far as the perceived negative economic impact of scarcity on manufacturing is concerned.
This is indicated in a recently published PricewaterhouseCoopers survey which, in turn again, highlights the role a global industry association could perform to fairly and accurately promote the interests of both producers and consumers of lithium (see panel).
Some background is required to appreciate the lithium position.
The lithium resources industry is small in terms of world production (USGS 2010 estimate: 25,300 tonnes elemental lithium), geographical distribution (five countries accounting for around 95% of world production), and number of producers (four major producers accounting for over 70% of world production.
Three (all brines-based) of the four major lithium producers are very much smaller parts of large international speciality chemicals corporations with 2010...