Wat er werkelijk wordt vervoerd
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.
- Het materiaal
- Lithium
- De variëteit
- Spodumene concentrate, 6% Li2O, from an LCT pegmatite
- Waar het begint
- Australia — Greenbushes, Western Australia — the highest-grade hard-rock lithium mine in the world
Stap voor stap, en grens voor grens
Australia · Greenbushes, Western Australia in beheer bij Talison Lithium (Mijnbouwer)
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.
Waarom hier: The pegmatite is here. Greenbushes was mined for tin for a century before anyone wanted the lithium.
Australia · Concentrator on site in beheer bij Talison Lithium (Mijnbouwer)
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.
Wat er met de rest gebeurde: 880 tonnes to tailings. Concentrating on site is essential — shipping the waste rock across an ocean would be absurd.
Waarom hier: You concentrate as close to the pit as possible, always. Freight is charged by the tonne.
China · Port Hedland or Bunbury to Chinese ports in beheer bij Traders and converters (Handelaar)
Bulk carrier to China
Shipped as bulk concentrate. This is the step that made spodumene a spot-traded commodity with a visible price.
Waarom hier: 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 in beheer bij Converter (Chemisch)
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.
Wat er met de rest gebeurde: 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.
Waarom hier: Energy, acid, chemical engineering and a qualified customer next door.
South Korea · Cathode and cell plants in beheer bij Cathode and cell manufacturers (Fabrikant)
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.
Waarom hier: High-nickel cathode expertise sits in a small number of Korean, Japanese and Chinese firms.
United States · Wherever it is sold in beheer bij The driver (Eindgebruiker)
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.
Waarom hier: Four countries, two oceans, and about four months from blast to battery.
Dit is een uitgewerkt voorbeeld. Het volgt een opgegeven beginhoeveelheid door gepubliceerde typische opbrengsten en rendementen, zodat de verhoudingen controleerbaar zijn; het is geen verslag van een concrete zending. Routefeiten — welke landen, welke processen, en waarom het materiaal niet zomaar elders kan worden verwerkt — zijn samengesteld uit openbare bronnen.