[D66] “Lithium is the new oil” - Mexico

[R.O.]

https://dialogochino.net/en/extractive-industries/33491-mexicos-lithium-discovery-is-a-double-edged-sword/



    We don't need no fuckin' lithium!



Mexico


  Mexico's lithium discovery is a double-edged sword

Lithium holds the promise of accelerating the energy transition but at 
what cost for Mexico's water resources and national development?

Ann Deslandes February 14, 2020

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Mexico's Sonora state mining impacts lithium

Mexico's Sonora state has suffered big environmental impacts from mining 
and the discovery of massive lithium deposits will test its ability to 
extract responsibly (image: LuisGutierrez / NortePhoto.com)

With reserves of some 244 million tonnes, lithium deposits discovered by 
the Canadian company Bacanora in the northeastern Mexican state of 
Sonora are the world’s largest, containing significantly more than the 
second-placed Thacker Pass site in the US state of Nevada (178 million 
tonnes), Mexico’s under secretary of mining Francisco Quiroga claimed in 
December.

Lithium is an central component in rechargeable batteries used in 
smartphones and electronic vehicles (EVs), making it critical for the 
global energy transition. Ganfeng Lithium, China’s largest lithium 
compounds producer and supplier to Tesla, has already agreed to a joint 
venture Bacanora to develop the mine in Sonora, which will be Mexico’s 
first lithium mine.


        Did you know...?


As well as electric vehicle and smartphone batteries, lithium is used to 
manufacture heat-resistant glass and ceramics, industrial greases, and 
in treatments for bipolar disorder and depression

Chinese companies keen to corner the global EV market, which the 
Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates will reach 44 million 
vehicles by 2030.

“Lithium is the new oil”, Víctor Manuel Toledo, Mexico’s Environment 
Secretary said on announcing the Sonora discovery.

While the metal holds clean energy potential, it comes with pitfalls. 
The exploitation of lithium, requires huge quantities of water and can 
have serious consequences for the environment. Its extraction and 
industrialisation has also ignited vigorous national debates about 
resource ownership and management in countries including Chile and Bolivia.

Mexico has the added complication of its lithium mine sitting in a 
region controlled by criminal organisations, which the government has 
failed to control.

Extraction of the deposits in Sonora’s Bacadéhuachi municipality, which 
the Bavispe river runs through, are expected to commence in 2022.


    China hones in on Mexico’s lithium

“Ganfeng has investments in resources all over the world - China, 
Australia, Argentina, Ireland and now Mexico,” Joe Lowry, a lithium 
market expert, told Diálogo Chino. He noted that the company is unable 
to invest in lithium in the US due to regulations on foreign control of 
strategic resources.

China currently dominates the EV supply chain, producing close to 
two-thirds of the world’s lithium-ion batteries. The US produces 
scarcely 5%. China also controls most of the world’s lithium processing 
facilities, according to data from Benchmark Minerals Intelligence.

75%

of the world's lithium lies in the salty brine deserts of northern Chile 
and Argentina, and southern Bolivia

Toledo said that the Mexican government is looking to begin 
manufacturing EVs in state-owned factories. Sonora Economy Secretary 
Jorge Vidal also said that his government had met with Ganfeng to 
discuss building a battery factory alongside the mine.

Quiroga said the Bacadéhuachi mine will bring “progress and wellbeing” 
to Sonora, a state with high rates of corruption and violence.


    Security and sustainability concerns

Lowry said the mine’s location is “at best ‘challenging’” from a 
security perspective. “There are certainly much better places [than 
Sonora] to invest in a lithium project,” he added.

The mine is situated in an area affected by organised crime, just 98 
kilometres from where gunmen suspected of belonging to a drug cartel 
massacred nine women and children of dual US and Mexican nationality on 
November 4 last year. According to Reuters, Coparmex--an influential 
Mexican business organisation, warned that violence is causing investors 
to lose confidence in the economy.

On November 11, armed robbers stole gold and silver in transit from a 
Sonoran mine in an incident that served as “an unwelcome reminder of the 
security risks faced by miners in Mexico,” business news website BN 
Americas wrote recently.

Furthermore, global lithium prices are volatile, and Mexico’s mining 
sector in particular has struggled to attract investment for over a decade.


    Water Shortages and Chemical Spills

Sonora is already facing a desertification crisis and is ranked as 
having ‘Extremely High Baseline Water Stress’, according to the World 
Resources Institute. This means the population is already using more 
than 80% of their available water supply.

    it’s a resource that we could be taking advantage of here in Mexico,
    both as an export and as a source of cleaner energy

Ricardo Durazo, coordinator of environmental campaign group Fridays for 
Future in Sonoran state capital Hermosillo,  told Diálogo Chino that 
water supply is a critical environmental issue in the state. The 
discovery of the lithium deposits is “a double-edged sword” he said.

“Just as lithium is indispensable for the creation and development of 
renewable energies, it is also a mineral that is particularly polluting” 
he said.

There lithium extraction process has an inherent risk of contamination. 
In Tibet in 2016, where lithium has been mined since the 1960s, 
initially for use in industrial greases and anti-depressants, a toxic 
chemical leak from the Ganzizhou Rongda Lithium mine killed fish and 
cattle that local farming communities depended on.

Hydrochloric acid is used in lithium processing to filter waste products 
from the brine, rock or clay. This has generated conflict with 
communities living near mines in Argentina and Chile, where it has 
polluted local water sources. Lithium extraction can also affect soil 
and air quality.

“I think it’s a resource that we could be taking advantage of here in 
Mexico, both as an export and as a source of cleaner energy,” said 
Durazo.  “But it will depend on the politicians, the authorities and the 
mining companies to implement environmental protection standards.”

*
Ann Deslandes is an Australian freelance journalist and writer based in 
Mexico City <https://dialogochino.net/en/authors/ann-deslandes/>*

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