New source of lithium in Germany itself will reduce the pressure on lithium mining in slavery conditions in Africa

If there's one thing that stands out (among other things) in the Corona crisis - it's how fragile the supply chain is. Almost every area where manufacturers relied on products or raw materials coming from abroad - encountered many difficulties until the activity was completely stopped. At the same time, the importance of relying on raw materials and local industry - from simple masks to raw materials for the industry - became very important.

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Much is said about the problem of lithium mining. The essential raw material for creating electric car batteries - a raw material that the automotive industry has thirsted for and is willing to pay a lot for. However, most of the lithium is mined in Africa - and Africa like Africa is not very considerate of the terms of employment or age of miners. And this created "unpleasantness" in the boardrooms on the upper floors of European executive towers as elsewhere.

Now a report was published in the German newspaper "walt am sonntag" - that in the next few years companies producing lithium batteries in Germany will have their own source of precious raw material - in Germany itself. The source of lithium will be the water in the deepest regions of the Rhine River as well as geothermal power plants. According to preliminary tests - these sources contain between 200 and 400 milligrams of lithium per liter.

To source

In laboratory experiments conducted by the energy company EnBw, it was discovered that the process of lithium extraction from water is quite easy and it announced that soon a pilot of a large-scale production of a demo facility will be set up specifically for this purpose.

According to him, another energy company in Germany called Vulcan is testing a large-scale experiment based on a geothermal power plant located in Inheim during the current year. According to Vulcan's management, 2021 will focus on creating a large-scale industrial process for producing lithium when full production is expected in the following year. With a target of 2000 tons to be produced annually.

If the experiments prove to be true and it is possible to produce lithium in a much cheaper process and on a larger scale than the current mining. Which will lead to a reduction in the heaviest cost of an electric vehicle - the cost of the battery - which could significantly lower the prices of future electric cars and make them accessible to all of us. By the way, even in our "Dead Sea" there is lithium. According to Wikipedia, about 20 milligrams of lithium per liter.