The state of lithium

[Joanne98]

As the United States turns its attention to new sources of energy, one of the most obscure minor metals in the world is becoming a household name. Demand for lithium, specifically lithium carbonate, has increased substantially in the last ten years. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the United States imports 3,450 metric tons of lithium carbonate while producing about 1,500 tons annually. Approximately 80% of the world's lithium is located in the great salt flats of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. As with any valuable commodity, lithium is becoming another focus of competition in national and world politics.

(While Lithium (Li) and Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) are very different materials, for the purposes of this article lithium carbonate shall be called lithium.)

Almost all the the innovations in battery technology today use lithium. Lithium is not an obscure, precious commodity. It has applications in ceramics, pharmaceuticals, and in aluminum production. The rapid rise in demand for it, however, is due to its increasing usefulness in lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are desirable because they are lightweight, have a very slow loss of charge when not in use, and have double the energy density of nickel-based batteries. Lithium is commonly found in rock salts around the world. The United States has one domestic major lithium company, American Lithium Minerals of Nevada, exploring throughout the Great Basin. The company has no mines producing at the moment. USGS reports a total 760,000 tons in proven U.S. reserves. There are 13 million tons in other countries, with the Chile and Bolivia holding 3 million and 5.4 million tons, respectively. There are many more details about lithium production I wont address here, but will in future work. Lithium mining, like all mining, has an environmental price. There are alternatives to lithium in development that may render it obsolete. For now, I want to examine the political dimension of lithium production in Chile and Bolivia and its impact on the United States.

Chile

Any talk about lithium has to begin with Chile. Chile exports 50 percent of the world's lithium, mostly through a formerly state-owned company called SQM. The company mines lithium at the huge Atacama Salt Flat, tapping an estimated 2.5 million metric tons in lithium reserves. Julio Ponce Lerou is the son-in-law of the brutal military dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and is the man in control of formerly state-owned SQM. He is one of the richest men in Chile. Larou's control of Chilean lithium is a classic story of corruption common wherever privatization schemes have unfolded. There are other unexplored salt flats throughout Chile, almost all owned by the state. RareMetalBlog notes that under a new "open markets" initiative, the government of the new center-right president, billionaire Sebastian Pinera, has passed measures that will open up new lithium mines to more private interests. Chilean bloggers are already calling Pinera their George W. Bush--complete with "ownership society" rhetoric.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/6/13/874746/-The-state-of-lithium

[unhappycamper]

1. The Southern Command already has their sights set on South America.

http://www.southcom.mil/appssc/index.php

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. There must be at least a couple of terrorists in Chile that need to be

smoked out of their caves.

[truth2power]

3. You beat me to it!..

Just wait for it...It'll be S. America next.

The War Against Terror (TWAT). The gift that keeps on giving.