Ce qui se déplace réellement
Hard-rock lithium is mined and floated like any other ore, then shipped as a concentrate to be cracked open with heat and acid. It is faster to start, faster to stop and faster to expand than a salar — which is why hard rock, not brine, supplied most of the growth of the last decade.
- Le matériau
- Lithium
- La variété
- Spodumene concentrate, 6% Li2O, from an LCT pegmatite
- Où cela commence
- Australia — Greenbushes, Western Australia — the highest-grade hard-rock lithium mine in the world
Étape par étape, et frontière par frontière
Australia · Greenbushes, Western Australia détenu par Talison Lithium (Mineur)
Drill, blast, load, haul
Conventional open-pit mining of a zoned pegmatite. The ore is unusually rich in lithium for hard rock, which is why this mine stays profitable through price crashes that shut others.
Pourquoi ici: The pegmatite is here. Greenbushes was mined for tin for a century before anyone wanted the lithium.
Australia · Concentrator on site détenu par Talison Lithium (Mineur)
Crushing and floating to a concentrate
Crushed, ground, and separated by dense-media separation and flotation until the spodumene is concentrated to about 6% Li2O.
Ce qu'il est advenu du reste: 880 tonnes to tailings. Concentrating on site is essential — shipping the waste rock across an ocean would be absurd.
Pourquoi ici: You concentrate as close to the pit as possible, always. Freight is charged by the tonne.
China · Port Hedland or Bunbury to Chinese ports détenu par Traders and converters (Négociant)
Bulk carrier to China
Shipped as bulk concentrate. This is the step that made spodumene a spot-traded commodity with a visible price.
Pourquoi ici: The converters are in China. Australia has built some conversion capacity, and found out how hard commissioning a lithium chemical plant to battery specification really is.
China · Sichuan or Jiangxi détenu par Converter (Chimique)
Roasting at 1,050 °C, then acid
The concentrate is calcined to flip alpha-spodumene into the beta form, then digested in concentrated sulfuric acid and purified into lithium hydroxide or carbonate.
Ce qu'il est advenu du reste: The sulfuric acid used here is largely a by-product of oil refining and metal smelting — the same sulfur that came off a heavy crude barrel elsewhere in this atlas.
Pourquoi ici: Energy, acid, chemical engineering and a qualified customer next door.
South Korea · Cathode and cell plants détenu par Cathode and cell manufacturers (Fabricant)
Cathode, cell, pack
Hydroxide is preferred over carbonate for high-nickel cathodes because it calcines at a lower temperature. It becomes cathode powder, then a coated electrode, then a sealed cell.
Pourquoi ici: High-nickel cathode expertise sits in a small number of Korean, Japanese and Chinese firms.
United States · Wherever it is sold détenu par The driver (Utilisateur final)
A long-range electric car
The same 8 kg of lithium as the Chilean route delivers — from 1,000 tonnes of rock instead of a million litres of brine.
Pourquoi ici: Four countries, two oceans, and about four months from blast to battery.
Il s'agit d'un exemple traité. Il suit une quantité de départ déclarée à travers des rendements et des taux de récupération typiques publiés, de sorte que les proportions sont vérifiables ; ce n'est pas le relevé d'un envoi spécifique. Les données d'itinéraire — quels pays, quels procédés, et pourquoi le matériau ne peut simplement pas être traité ailleurs — sont compilées à partir de sources publiques.