Lithium is the lightest metal with strong chemical activity. It is a typical lithophile dispersed element with a geological abundance of 20 × 10-6。 There are more than 100 kinds of lithium bearing minerals in nature. At present, there are only 5 kinds of lithium minerals used in industry, namely spodumene, lepidolite, lithium permeable feldspar, phospholithium aluminite and ferrilithium mica. Spodumene and lepidolite are the main sources of solid lithium ore at present.
There are two main types of lithium resources in China. One is the intercrystalline brine existing in the quaternary salt lake. The liquid in the lake is mined. The production process of extracting lithium and lithium compounds has been broken through, that is, the recently fried salt lake for extracting lithium. The other is the solid minerals involved in this paper, such as spodumene, lepidolite and so on.
Compared with salt lake lithium carbonate, lithium mica lithium carbonate and spodumene lithium carbonate both extract lithium from minerals, adopt hydrometallurgical process, and produce in a closed manner throughout the whole process. The content indicators of sodium ion, boron element and magnetic substances in the products are strictly controlled, with high purity and stable quality. They have advantages in high-end application fields, and are also the main source of cathode materials for ternary lithium batteries at present.
Because there are many impurities in lepidolite and the content of Li2O is relatively low, the cost of extracting lithium from lepidolite in the early stage is high. At the same time, the method of extracting lithium from mica is relatively single, resulting in difficulties in large-scale production. In recent years, the lithium extraction technology has been continuously optimized and upgraded, which has improved the mass production efficiency of lithium extraction from mica.
The method of extracting lithium from mica has undergone iterative innovation. According to the research on the method of preparing battery grade lithium carbonate from lithium mica based on one-step method (2020), the cost of extracting battery grade lithium carbonate by one-step method is reduced to about 33000 yuan / ton, and the average cost of each lithium extraction technology is about 40900 yuan / ton, which injects vitality into the large-scale development of lithium mica.
Market prospect of lithium battery
Driven by the global demand for power batteries and energy storage, a new cycle of lithium industry has begun. The trend of 5g replacement and the unexpected growth of new energy vehicles or the explosion of demand in emerging markets (energy storage, etc.) led to the increase of lithium demand, the surge of lithium carbonate imports, the lithium price broke through the shock range and entered a new round of upward cycle.
As of July 2021, lc2110 continued to fluctuate and rise. The closing price on the 30th was 129.5, up 36.32% from the closing price of 95.0 on the first day. The cumulative turnover was 186.14 tons, and the position continued to rise.
Independent development of lithium resources is imminent
In 2020, the dependence of lithium raw ore on foreign countries was about 70%, of which imports from Australia accounted for 60%. In the context of current international relations, it is necessary to carry out large-scale development of lithium resources in China to ensure the safety of supply.