India Discovers Lithium in Karnataka !
Can we relate Mineral oil with lithium?
India has initiated a concerted domestic exploration push for the alkali metal. A vital ingredient of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles, laptops, and mobile phones.
Preliminary surveys by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), an arm of the Department of Atomic Energy, are learned to have shown- “The presence of 1600 tonnes of lithium resources in the igneous rock of the Marlagalla-Allapatna region of Karnataka’s Mandya District”. AMD is carrying out surface and subsurface Exploration for lithium in potential geological domains of the country.
The find in Mandya is extremely small in quantitative terms, But it marks some initial success in the attempts to domestically mine the silver-white metal by way of hard-rock extraction of the ore.
Imports
India currently imports all its lithium needs. Its importance of lithium batteries tripled to 1.2 billion dollars in FY19 from 384 million dollars in FY17. Over 165 crore lithium batteries are estimated to have been imported into India between 2016-17 and 2019-20 at an estimated import bill of upwards of 3.3 billion dollars.
Experts say while India requires Lithium for its energy needs, there have been no comprehensive efforts to map local Reserves of lithium so far.
Renewed push for lithium extraction
The domestic exploration push, which also includes exploratory work to extract Lithium from the Brine Pools of Rajasthan and Gujarat and the mica belts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh comes at a time when India has stepped up its economic offensive against China.
A major source of Lithium-ion energy storage products has been imported into the country. The Marlagalla-Allapatna area, along the Nagamangala Schist Belt, which exposes mineralized complex pegmatites (igneous rocks), is seen as among the most promising geological domains for potential exploration for lithium and other rare metals, officials said.
However, the lithium is comparatively small considering the size of proven reserves in
- Bolivia (21 million tonnes)
- Argentina (17 Million tonnes),
- Australia (6.3 million tonnes) and
- China(4.5 million tonnes).
Khanij bidesh india ltd
In the middle of the last year India's through a newly- floating state-owned company had signed an agreement with an Argentinian firm, To jointly prospect lithium in a South American country that has the third-largest reserves of metal in the world.
The new company Kahnji Bidesh India Limited was incorporated in August 2019 by three state-owned companies, NALCO, Hindustan Copper, and Mineral Exploration Ltd, With the specific mandate strategic mineral to acquire strategic minerals assets such as Lithium and Cobalt aboard.
The company is learned to be also exploring options in Chile and Bolivia. India is seen as a late mover in attempts to enter the lithium value chain, Coming to a time when EVs are predicted to be a sector ripe for disruption.
2021 is likely to be an inflection point for battery technology.
LITHIUM THE NEW OIL !
The shift to renewables is happening at a record pace and lithium is at the core of this shift. The way the lithium industry is developing looks very similar to the beginning of the oil boom. Lithium is shaping geopolitics, just like oil. It will be driving cars, just like oil.
Over 50% of the world’s lithium triangle in South America.
Comments
Post a Comment