- Local time
- 7:15 AM
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2020
- Messages
- 6,650
- Reaction score
- 14,597
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
Yesterday, LG, of South Korea, and Stellantis announced a joint venture to build a new facility in Windsor, Ontario, the long time home of the former Chrysler's assembly plant. This 5 billion dollar investment on their part will produce lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Both provincial and federal governments have announced their support for the enterprise, but did not disclose $ figures. The two levels of government have already invested in plant conversions to produce electric vehicles at Honda in Alliston, General Motors in Oshawa and Ingersoll, and Ford in Oakville, Ontario. There has been further tax money slated for installing charging stations across Canada. The push is on!I
This announcement made me question where lithium came from, hoping it was not Russia. The #1 supplier is Australia, #2 is South America, and #3 is China. Lithium is a trace element in sea water, but it is very expensive to extract it directly from water. It seems that it is presently mined from former dry sea beds. Although these lithium-ion batteries are tied to conservation and green energy, the mining process for lithium is anything but that. The process is quite destructive and is compared to coal mining. It is quite doubtful that all the heavy equipment used in this mining is battery powered. Some experts project that these deposits could be exhausted as early as 2025. That seems very short term. I am no scientist, but if I were looking for lithium deposits in U.S.A., I would likely start by digging up the Bonneville Salt Flats. I guess there are different shades of green, but the prominent one remains $$$.
This announcement made me question where lithium came from, hoping it was not Russia. The #1 supplier is Australia, #2 is South America, and #3 is China. Lithium is a trace element in sea water, but it is very expensive to extract it directly from water. It seems that it is presently mined from former dry sea beds. Although these lithium-ion batteries are tied to conservation and green energy, the mining process for lithium is anything but that. The process is quite destructive and is compared to coal mining. It is quite doubtful that all the heavy equipment used in this mining is battery powered. Some experts project that these deposits could be exhausted as early as 2025. That seems very short term. I am no scientist, but if I were looking for lithium deposits in U.S.A., I would likely start by digging up the Bonneville Salt Flats. I guess there are different shades of green, but the prominent one remains $$$.