J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 6
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by 2020, and it is not the only gigafac-
tory to come on board. Several countries
are already seeing the benefits of utiliz-
ing electric vehicles to decrease pollution
in the inner cities. Some countries have
included financial incentives, or tax incen-
tives to promote the purchase of lower
emissions (hybrids) or no emissions (full
electric) motors.
"Car manufacturers are not the only
market for more powerful, more efficient
batteries," said Perez. "We also need to
consider the potential of utilizing batteries
in houses and other appliances (lawn mow-
ers, hand tools, etc). We do expect lithium
demand to grow just based on the number
of plants designed to build batteries."
Perez notes that the US Geological
Survey stated in its 2016 report on lith-
ium: "Lithium consumption for batteries
has increased significantly in recent years
because rechargeable lithium batteries are
used extensively in the growing market for
portable electronic devices and, increas-
ingly, are used in electric tools, electric
vehicles, and grid storage applications".
Perez went on to comment, "Like most
of the mining industry, only the most
competitive projects in terms of CAPEX
investment and ongoing OPEX will be
successful."
Regarding whether the processing of
lithium brine resources is an economical
process with a high margin, Perez stated,
"It depends. Lithium is found in rocks,
clays or brine; how much processing you
need for a product that you can sell varies.
It is usually a combination of low CAPEX
and low OPEX that brings a higher mar-
gin. In this case, I would favour brines as
lower cost of extraction vs rocks or clays
as higher costs of extraction. If you are
crushing, grinding, milling, leaching and
concentrating in your plant, you are look-
ing at a considerable CAPEX and OPEX. If
you are just evaporating a pond because
you have natural brine, then it is a lot
simpler operation and considerably lower
CAPEX.
Lithium is also widely used in the mak-
ing of glass, ceramics and pharmaceuticals.
China is the largest buyer.
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