Image: CARLOS BARRIA (Reuters)
The recent announcement by India’s Geological Survey of India (GSI) of its preliminary exploration for lithium reserves has excited many industries dependent on the scarce alkali metal. According to GSI, it has identified “Inferred Lithium Resources” along the Salal-Haimana area of Reasi District in Jammu and Kashmir, calculated based on physical and chemical survey of surface and samples.
The news has given hope to makers of lithium-based batteries, electric vehicles, solar arrays and other industries currently dependent on lithium imports from China and other countries. According to government data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, India spent 163 billion rupees on importing lithium and lithium-ion between April and December 2022-23.
Aditya Vikram, general manager of Renon India, a Gujarat-based lithium-ion battery maker, told Mongabay-India that battery production costs can drop by 5% to 7% if the metal is available domestically. India is currently importing all the major components that go into the manufacture of Li-ion cells.
“Lithium batteries include about 100-200 lithium cells for electric two-wheeler applications. Lithium cells are made up of elements such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, nickel, copper, graphite and others. The advantage that the domestic market can offer us is a stable supply, regardless of the developing geopolitics,” he said.
He added that those dependent on imports often face volatility in the price of imported lithium cells due to growing dollar-rupee imbalances and supply chain issues.
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The Indian government’s ambitious plan to reach net-zero by 2070 has the potential to increase demand for lithium. As the country races to transition to clean energy, there will be greater demand for lithium as electric vehicles (EVs) and clean energy storage are currently dependent on metal.
According to NITI Aayog, total EV sales could increase to 80 million by 2030 from the 1.3 million sales reported by July 2022. A Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report claims that by 2029-30 India will have 2,700 megawatts of battery storage capacity.
find lithium
GSI originally mapped and reported the presence of lithium occurrences in the region more than two decades ago, in 1999. Mapping by GSI is the very first step in identifying a mineral. This is followed by the next phase of exploration where Inferred Resources will be calculated based on a physical and chemical survey of the surface and samples.
It took the country two decades to move from Phase G4 (Exploration), where mapping of resources takes place, to Phase G3 (Prospecting), where quantities are inferred based on the interpretation of geological, geophysical and geochemical results and a deposit identified which will be the target of further exploration. In the next phase, G2 (general exploration), further studies will be conducted to estimate the shape, size and grade of the minerals. Finally, phase G1 (detailed exploration) is where the properties of the deposit are determined with a high degree of accuracy. The information from the G1 stage can be used to decide whether to conduct a feasibility study next. GSI has adopted this classification of mining exploration from the 2009 United National Framework Classification for Mineral Reserves.
Pankaj Srivastava, Professor of Geology at Jammu University, told Mongabay-India that G3 exploration at J&K is preliminary in nature where computational confidence is low. It needs to be backed up by further evidence to support the amount of minerals available at such sites. The current study does not show whether metal extraction is possible at the site.
“To be on the safe side, explorers take the G2 level of assessment after G3, where the indicative resources are calculated, which tell us how much of the deposit could be mined with more facts. Later on at the G1 level, small-scale exploration mining will be carried out to determine if the area is precisely mining ready and the actual evaluation of the proven resources will be carried out at this level,” he added.
Early estimates indicate that the lithium quantity at Reasi could amount to 5.9 million tonnes. However, as indicated by the 1999 GSI report, the lithium in the Reasi district is mixed with bauxite. The final deposit amount could be less than predicted at G3 level. The lithium found at Reasi had a quality greater than 800 ppm (parts per million), indicating a higher level of enrichment. Any lithium mineral with a quality greater than 300 ppm is considered a good enrichment value, Srivastava said.
Why progress in exploring such a crucial material was slow after 1999 is not clear. Emails sent by Mongabay-India to GSI headquarters in New Delhi, their public relations officer in Kolkata and the Ministry of Mines of the Jammu and Kashmir government have received no response at the time of publication.
India also had another claim to lithium deposits in 2021 when India’s Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMDER) claimed to have found 1,600 tonnes of the metal in the Marlagalla region of Karnataka’s Mandya district. Lithium reconnaissance resources (found after the G4 reconnaissance level) are also being explored along the Saraswati River in the Jodhpur and Barmer districts of Rajasthan in the brines. Lithium is detected and extracted from rock, clay, sediments and salt water (brine) on the surface of subterranean waters.
Lithium’s journey from mine to battery
Deepak Krishnan, Associate Director, Energy Program at World Resources Institute (WRI)-India, Mongabay-India said the recent GSI discovery has a long way to go before it becomes economically viable to mine lithium in the region and use it for Production of lithium to create lithium-ion batteries.
“We have to wait and see how much of this resource is viable and viable for commercial extraction. The further study of the GSI will show the amount of the total reserve. Mining alone would not mean an end to outside dependency. Countries like China have developed additional infrastructure and technological know-how, as well as experience in processing and refining mined lithium to prepare it for use in batteries. We don’t have anything on that front and would need energy, capital and the government’s strong support to do it,” Krishnan said.
Lithium is known to effectively convert chemical energy into electrical energy due to its high durability, light weight, and endurance. Sagar Mitra, Professor, Department of Energy Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay, Mongabay-India said that unlike Chile, where there are lithium deposits, the Reasi region in J&K had lithium mixed with other minerals the stones. This can lead to further challenges in terms of cost and technology of processing.
“India is not used to extracting and purifying lithium. It is mixed with stones and other minerals. It would require, among other chemicals and processing, to fracture the rock and remove volatile chemicals through evaporation and magnetic impurities with magnets. India has never done this and does not have the best experience, proven technologies to rely on, nor established industries to do it,” he said.
He added that such a complex exercise could also prove costly. “However, Australia has lithium reserves similar to the J&K reserve where lithium is mixed with bauxite. We may need technology transfers and links with the lithium metal extraction industry outside,” he said, adding that India needs to speed up the whole process while keeping an eye on increasing demand for batteries and electric vehicles.
Surendra Chaku, a retired geologist based in Australia, has also worked on exploration in India. He claimed that the incident reported by GSI is a very preliminary assessment of the area and one should await a final proven estimate before coming to a conclusion.
“No resource has been defined yet and many have hyped this up. It’s happened so many times. It seems that this project may never reach mining grade. So the question of mining in this pristine Himalayan region remains only speculation,” he said.
Occurrence in the Himalayan region
According to the seismic zonation map of India, all of Jammu and Kashmir, which is close to the Himalayas, falls under Zone IV and is also environmentally sensitive. Several international reports in countries where lithium is mined have talked about the impact of environmental degradation in such areas.
The extraction of the metal from the brine is usually done by direct extraction technology, evaporation of the brine or by open-pit mining of clay and rock.
An August 2022 report published in natural reserve claimed that the proven technologies of open pit or brine evaporation for lithium extraction would require hundreds of acres of land for extraction and could result in the complete removal of native vegetation from the area. It also said such projects are most likely to take place in rural areas and wild zones, affecting local people and promoting sustainable mining methods for the metal.
The Reasi District in J&K, where the lithium deposits were discovered, has rural households, vegetation and the Chenab River and tributaries near its hills.
The article originally appeared in Mongabay India.
Source: qz.com
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