Lithium is the lightest metal in the world, with a much higher energy density than other metals. This makes it one of the most exploited metals in terms technological when it comes to powering rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras and electric vehicles.
Until a few days ago, global lithium resources were distributed as follows: Bolivia, 23 million tons; Argentina, 22 million tons; Chile, 11 million tons; Australia, 8.7 million tons and China, 6.8 million tons. But now, China’s lithium reserves have almost tripled, which makes it the second largest holder of reserves of this metal in the worldaccording to the state news agency Xinhua.
The country now represents 16.5 percent of world reservesonly behind Chile, and has surpassed Australia, Argentina and Bolivia, according to the China Geological Survey. The country was previously thought to hold 6 percent of the world’s total, but the increase is attributed to the discovery of new deposits and new techniques that allow the metal to be extracted from ores.
One of the problems that the country may face is that the deposits are located in the occupied territories of Tibet and Xinjiang. And that can generate political inconveniences. At the same time, moving from fifth to second place in this section is very good news for the Asian giant. At the moment, China is the largest consumer of lithium due to its electronics and electric vehicle manufacturing industries.. It also produces more than two-thirds of the world’s lithium-ion batteries and controls the majority of the world’s lithium processing facilities.
Increased domestic lithium exploration in China expected reduce your dependence on foreign supplies and contribute to a more balanced global lithium marketsaid the experts cited by the Xinhua report. In short, the discovery gives the country a very important technological independence that will undoubtedly affect the future of technology.