Diamond Modeling in World Lithium Brine Utilization Assessment

energy alternatives increases demand for many scarce metals. Among these is lithium, a key component of lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles. Global lithium resources are estimated to be 39 million metric tons (MT) and lithium is mined from three types of deposits: brines, pegmatites and sedimentary rocks. Continental brines and pegmatites (or hard-rock ore) are the main sources for commercial lithium production. Lithium (Li) brine deposits account for about three-fourths of the world’s lithium production (USGS, 2011). Brine deposits represent about 66 percent of global lithium resources and are found mainly in the salt flats of Chile, Argentina, China and Tibet. There are three types of brine deposit — continental, geothermal and oil field — with the most common being continental saline desert basins (also known as salt lakes, salt flats or salars). They are located near tertiary or recent volcanoes and are made up of sand, minerals with brine and saline water with high concentrations of dissolved salts. A playa is a brine deposit whose surface is composed mostly of silts and clays; they have less salt than a salar. There are four driving forces useful in assessing the world lithium brine processing market, which can be analyzed under a diamond modeling system or framework. These four factors of technology, resources, demand and capital acquisition have made extraction from brine sources more economical than commercial production from hard-rock ore, which could be a meaningful tool for next quantitative resources potential assessment with degree measures of possibility. First of all, emerging technology may become the biggest lithium game changer. New lithium extraction technologies are emerging, and, if successful, may further lower the cost of production at brine deposits, widening their economic advantage over hard-rock deposits. Recently, two companies — California startup Simbol Materials and South Korean steelmaker POSCO— have unveiled new lithium extraction methods that dramatically cut the cost and time it takes to produce lithium carbonate from brine deposits. China’s lithium consortium mainly located in Qinghai also developed key technology for high Mg/Li ratio brine extraction and recovery process with pro-ecology low pollution. Secondly, lithium brine endowments (brine deposits) including the amount, quality, complexity of contents in different districts vary greatly. So the continental brine resources are very important factors influencing the pattern of world lithium brine processing market. For instance, the majority of lithium carbonate is now produced from continental brines within Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, Latin America’s lithium triangle. Of these countries, Chile in particular dominates global continental brine production: two of the world’s leading lithium WU Xishun, HUANG Wenbin, YANG Tiantian, SUN Zhangtao and Li Li, 2014. Diamond Modeling in World Lithium Brine Utilization Assessment. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition), 88(supp. 1): 267–268.