International Battery Metals Ltd (IBATF)

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Eduardo Bitran: "We are in the presence of a lithium super cycle, but it will not be eternal"

And regarding the projects in the exploration stage, which will make up the supply of lithium in the medium term, he pointed out that Chile has a very low participation, with only 5.2% globally. Meanwhile, Canada represents 25.6%, Australia 17.6%, the United States 15.6% and Argentina 12.5%.

Technological efficiency

Due to the authorized quotas, in the process of extracting the salt flats to obtain potassium, lithium is extracted that, due to legal restrictions, cannot be processed, and must be reinjected to the salt flat. According to the academic, in 2016 the extraction of lithium from the Salar de Atacama was 755,793 tons LCE, while the total production of lithium products that year was approximately 82 thousand tons LCE, equivalent to 11% of what was extracted.

"As there is a regulation that is not integral for salt flats and treats potassium differently from lithium, in 2016 we had a potassium-oriented extraction, particularly in the case of MCS, which generated an enormous availability of lithium on the surface, which then had to be reinjected, with high water evaporation and environmental cost. By measuring what is actually produced, we will reach that SQM had efficiency levels of less than 10%," he said.

In that line, he showed that with technological efficiencies of the order of 45%, some 300 thousand tons could have been produced that year, more than the world market. "And what if we could produce 350 thousand tons in the Salar de Atacama? Of course we can do it, if there are more than 700 thousand tons on the surface," he said.

https://vvmm.cl/eduardo-bitran-estamos-en-presencia-de-un-super-ciclo-del-litio-pero-no-sera-eterno/