As you probably know if you follow automotive news closely, electric vehicles are particularly greedy for lithium. With the advent of electric cars, global demand is skyrocketing, and white gold, as it is now called, is becoming increasingly popular.

In connection with the mass deployment of electrification, some experts fear a rapid growth of lithium with a possible shortage, particularly due to lower supply than demand. Lithium is another problem, and here it becomes somewhat paradoxical with the electric car, which strives to be cleaner, this is his production. Lithium mining today is very polluting, even if new solutions are gradually being introduced to make mining cleaner.

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India, the new lithium El Dorado?

The planet does not have an unlimited supply of lithium. In 2018, for example, global deposits were estimated at approximately 14 million tons. But a recent discovery in India could change everything.

Indeed, according to the Ministry of Mines, India just discovered deposits of about 5.9 million tons of lithium oxide in its basements. Thus, the Indian discovery could increase the world’s known lithium reserves by more than 40%.

Lithium mines around the world

In 2020, several studies provided estimates of lithium deposits by country. Thus, Bolivia contained approximately 21 million tons of lithium, Argentina 17 million, Chile 9 million, the United States 6.8 million, Australia 6.3 million, and China 4.5 million.

France will not be left behind, as a deposit of approximately one million tons of lithium oxide will soon be developed. This deposit will produce 34,000 tons of lithium per year for approximately 25 years. It is equivalent production of approximately 700,000 electric models per year with current technology, and probably a little later, given the fact that batteries will require less and less resources.

Some suppliers are already working on lithium-free batteries, such as CATL, which is due to be introduced in 2023. the first sodium battery without requiring grams of lithium. Another element that should be explored further is the recycling of electric vehicle batteries. They can be recycled quite well, and some manufacturers are working hard to do so, such as Volkswagen, which recently announced that almost 100% of its batteries will be recycled to create a nearly closed loop.