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<address><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://dialogochino.net/en/extractive-industries/33491-mexicos-lithium-discovery-is-a-double-edged-sword/">https://dialogochino.net/en/extractive-industries/33491-mexicos-lithium-discovery-is-a-double-edged-sword/</a></address>
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<h2>We don't need no fuckin' lithium!</h2>
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<div class="post__tag">Mexico</div>
<h1 class="entry-title">Mexico's lithium discovery is a
double-edged sword</h1>
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<p class="post__subtitle">Lithium holds the promise of
accelerating the energy transition but at what cost for
Mexico's water resources and national development?</p>
<p class="byline author vcard float-left"> <span class="fn">Ann
Deslandes</span> <time class="updated"
datetime="2020-02-14T15:20:41+00:00">February 14, 2020</time>
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<p>Share</p>
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<figure class="post__banner wp-caption alignnone"> <img
src="https://dialogochino.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Sonora-Mexico-mining-impacts-lithium-1440x720.jpg"
class="attachment-article-banner size-article-banner
wp-post-image" alt="Mexico's Sonora state mining impacts
lithium" width="584" height="292"> <figcaption>
<p>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)</p>
</figcaption> </figure>
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<div class="has-content-area"
data-url="https://dialogochino.net/en/extractive-industries/33491-mexicos-lithium-discovery-is-a-double-edged-sword/"
data-title="Mexico's lithium discovery is a double-edged sword"
title="Mexico's lithium discovery is a double-edged sword">
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<div class="post-pullout">
<h4>Did you know...?</h4>
<br>
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<br>
</div>
<p>Chinese companies keen to corner the global EV market, which
the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates will reach
44 million vehicles by 2030.</p>
<p>“Lithium is the new oil”, Víctor Manuel Toledo, Mexico’s
Environment Secretary said on announcing the Sonora discovery.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mexico has the added complication of its lithium mine sitting
in a region controlled by criminal organisations, which the
government has failed to control.</p>
<p>Extraction of the deposits in Sonora’s Bacadéhuachi
municipality, which the Bavispe river runs through, are expected
to commence in 2022.</p>
<h2>China hones in on Mexico’s lithium</h2>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<div class="post-pullout">
<div class="post-pullout__number">75%</div>
<br>
of the world's lithium lies in the salty brine deserts of
northern Chile and Argentina, and southern Bolivia<br>
</div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Quiroga said the Bacadéhuachi mine will bring “progress and
wellbeing” to Sonora, a state with high rates of corruption and
violence.</p>
<h2>Security and sustainability concerns</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Furthermore, global lithium prices are volatile, and Mexico’s
mining sector in particular has struggled to attract investment
for over a decade.</p>
<h2>Water Shortages and Chemical Spills</h2>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“Just as lithium is indispensable for the creation and
development of renewable energies, it is also a mineral that is
particularly polluting” he said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p><strong><a
href="https://dialogochino.net/en/authors/ann-deslandes/"
rel="author" class="fn"><br>
<span class="role-title">Ann Deslandes is an Australian
freelance journalist and writer based in Mexico City</span></a></strong></p>
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