The process of extracting lithium consumes significant amounts of water and energy, and lithium mining can pollute the air and water with chemicals and heavy metals. In addition, mining lithium can disrupt wildlife habitats and cause soil erosion, leading to long-term ecological damage.
Lithium mining is, like all mining, environmentally and socially harmful. More than half the current lithium production, which is very water intensive, takes place in regions blighted by water shortages that are likely to get worse due to global heating.
While the hazards of lithium mining can cause significant harm to the environment during its production, it is still more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels.
Furthermore, lithium mining requires a lot of water. To extract one ton of lithium requires about 500,000 liters of water, and can result in the poisoning of reservoirs and related health problems.
Coal mining
The environmental factors of the coal industry are not only impacting air pollution, water management and land use but also is causing severe health effects by the burning of the coal.
By instead using new, alternative low-impact mining techniques — like in-situ leaching — mining companies can reduce their environmental impact. With many of these techniques, companies can significantly reduce surface disturbance at mining sites, lower soil erosion and move less material that would need backfilled.
The process of extracting lithium consumes significant amounts of water and energy, and lithium mining can pollute the air and water with chemicals and heavy metals. In addition, mining lithium can disrupt wildlife habitats and cause soil erosion, leading to long-term ecological damage.
Lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination. According to a report by Friends of the Earth (FoE), lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination.
Lithium is mined and processed to make it useful. In recent years, there have been reports of unethical activities at lithium mines, such as mistreatment of miners, overuse of freshwater sources and the destruction of local ecosystems.
Tesla officially broke ground Monday on a Texas lithium refinery, making it the only U.S. automaker to refine its own lithium. CEO Elon Musk said the refinery will produce enough battery-grade lithium for 1 million electric vehicles by 2025, which would make Tesla the largest processor of lithium in North America.
As with all mining, there are concerns about lithium mines, but some experts overstate the potential environmental cost while neglecting to mention a big advantage: mining for lithium is much cleaner than mining for coal.
Li-ion batteries, or those contained in electronic devices, should therefore be recycled at certified battery electronics recyclers that accept batteries rather than being discarded in the trash or put in municipal recycling bins.
The bottom line
While the question of the supply of lithium for EV batteries is a valid one to raise, the abundant supply of lithium means it is unlikely that the world will ever run out of this vital resource.
Hence, Lithium is not a rare earth mineral.
Lithium toxicity signs are obvious and can be identified and managed easily; however, ignoring it can be fatal. Indeed, in some cases, lithium toxicity can lead to coma, brain damage, or even death. Moreover, lithium can induce serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal and life-threatening condition[31].
A typical EV battery has about 8 kilograms of lithium, 14 kilograms of cobalt, and 20 kilograms of manganese, although this can often be much more depending on the battery size – a Tesla Model S' battery, for example, contains around 62.6 kg (138 pounds) of lithium.
Musk has urged entrepreneurs to enter the lithium refining business, saying it is like "minting money." "We're begging you. We don't want to do it. Can someone please?," he said during a conference call last month.
On one hand, lithium mining brings revenues to the State coffer and profits for national and foreign companies. On the other hand, these economic benefits have come with social and environmental costs. The mining industry is extracting a large amount of groundwater in one of the driest desert regions in the world.
Lower Environmental Impact: Compared to some other rechargeable battery technologies, lithium-ion batteries have a lower environmental impact. They do not contain toxic heavy metals like lead or cadmium although they do have some toxic chemicals, and are easier to recycle than their counterparts.
Chile holds the world's largest lithium reserves and is the world's second-largest producer.
Higher exposures may cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), a medical emergency, with severe shortness of breath. ► Exposure to Lithium can cause loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
Lithium mining accounts for less than 10% of freshwater usage and its brine extraction does not correlate with changes in either surface-water features or basin-water storage.
Particularly in hard rock mining, for every tonne of mined lithium, 15 tonnes of CO2 are emitted into the air.
Lithium extraction projects are multiplying in 2023, with spodumene (ore-based lithium) mine sites set to open in Australia, Africa, and France. Brine sites in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia are seeing an increase in production, with talks of emerging technologies being adopted to be able to meet rising lithium demands.
It's anticipated that as EVs and reusable batteries scale up, we'll need three million tonnes of lithium globally by 2030. That's a six-fold increase from the start of this decade, so it's safe to say the entire process around mining and refining lithium will boom with new companies entering the market.