According to the "China Lithium Resources Survey Report", lithium mines are divided into two main categories: brine type and hard rock type. Brine type lithium mines include salt lake brine type lithium mines and underground brine type lithium mines, while hard rock type lithium mines include granite pegmatite type lithium mines and granite type lithium mines.
This article will mainly introduce hard rock lithium deposits.
Hard rock lithium resources account for about 30% of the world's proven lithium resources, and are mainly concentrated in Australia, the United States and China. Australia is the world's largest exporter of hard rock lithium.
Lithium extraction from ore has a long history and relatively mature technology. The main raw material for this process is spodumene concentrate, which has a relatively stable chemical composition. The process is easy to control and can relatively easily produce high-purity lithium products. The disadvantage is that the cost of producing industrial-grade lithium carbonate from ore is higher than that of lithium extraction from salt lakes.
Currently, China possesses 5.9% of the world's lithium resources, with brine lithium mines accounting for over 85% of its domestic lithium resources. Although my country's lithium resources represent only 5.9% of the world's total, its lithium production capacity accounts for 17% of the world's total.
my country has long relied on imports for lithium raw materials. Statistics show that in 2020, approximately 70% of lithium raw materials came from overseas, mostly lithium ore. This high dependence on foreign sources weakens China's bargaining power; the price of lithium concentrate rose by nearly 70% in just six months, putting significant pressure on my country's processing industry.
Therefore, lithium extraction technology from salt lakes has recently gained considerable popularity. However, in terms of reserves, lithium resources are mostly distributed in salt lakes; in terms of extraction costs, the cost of producing industrial-grade lithium carbonate from salt lakes is low, while the cost of producing electronic-grade lithium carbonate from ore is low. In summary, while salt lakes contain abundant lithium resources, their inherent quality is poor, and mining is extremely difficult. Ore-based lithium extraction technology is basically mature, but many companies have already established a presence in salt lake lithium extraction and have developed their own extraction processes.
