“ There is not sufficient supply to meet this demand projection based on our knowledge of known projects today. how much all the world's mines could supply in the coming years:Īs you can see, by 2025 swelling lithium demand will most likely outgrow the supply of all the known lithium projects. And now there’s a very limited number of projects making lithium. The drawdown forced miners to cut back on operations and call off the exploration of new mines. Since 2018, lithium prices have crashed 60-70% to rock-bottom lows. That means you need mines and often large-scale operations to extract it-and these might take years to explore and set up. There’s plenty of it, but it’s tucked away in the earth’s crust. Lithium producers are not ready for the coming wave of EVs Problem is, where will we get all this lithium?

In fact, UBS analysts estimated that the lithium market will grow 8X by 2030. And obviously, as demand for batteries grows, so will demand for lithium. It’s the lightest metal on earth and the key component of today’s rechargeable batteries. I’m not a chemist, but I can tell you one thing: no lithium-ion battery can be made, well, without lithium. And their composition varies based on technology. Now, lithium batteries are made of a number of materials and chemical compounds.

For perspective, that’s equivalent to 225 billion iPhone 11 batteries-and 13X more battery power than we use today. By 2030, EVs will need 2,700 GWh worth of lithium-ion batteries a year.

Endless space 2 depleted planet