lithium in bolivia independent of china
good contacts, persistence and the special knowledge of wolfgang dirt cleared the way for the largest salt lake in the world and its lithiumsole. after three years of preparation, the baden wuerttemberg scientists and entrepreneurs in mid december in berlin a joint venture party, whose importance for the german industry is enormous: lithium is one of the main raw materials of the battery and thus to the bolivian staatsuntern electromobility. ehmen ylb want the dirt - company from the salar de uyuni acisa lithium win.
lithium from the salt lake
eur 300 million will be invested in a plant, then by 2022 at up to 40 000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide is expected to produce. this quantity of 800, 000 car batteries. that's a lot, but in the factories of the volkswagen group to 2025, about 2.5 million electric cars will be built. therefore, further investments in bolivia, in the next decade, probably. the salar de uyuni alone, there are about 10 million tons of lithium.
the global demand for battery capacity is expected to increase dramatically from 70 gigawatt hours (gwh) 2015 to 2020 and 535 250 gwh in 2025. currently, the battery cells of a handful of asian companies, which is currently their capacity building and catl massively: byd in china rely on the domestic market, but also in the vicinity of erfurt (catl) new factories. in poland and hungary, samsung and lg chem investment, ski in production facilities in sweden is already a consortium named northvolt at a factory in germany attracts the policy with a milliardenförderung and france could be a group around total / juice a zellfertigung in attack. the eu's economic policymakers push the issue and promises great förderspielräume.
cobalt is mainly from the congo
but what about the schlüsselrohstoffen electromobility, so lithium, cobalt and nickel.
lithium, there are abundant in the salar de atacama in chile, australia, and bolivia. cobalt is mainly from the congo, nickel increasingly from russia, but also from scandinavia. in particular, the availability of cobalt, since the gain of the congo gained kobalts today 60 to 80 percent in the year 2020 is expected to increase. a strategic dependency on the democratic republic of congo, where in china the hand on the kobaltförderung or processing (see graph) should be avoided. here is professor dirt with his bolivian german joint venture in the game.
the salar de uyuni, the new company is mainly lithium hydroxide (he), the dirt 'assessment of the vast lithiumcarbonat with time out. reason is always more efficient cathodes with high nickel content. this, in turn, can only be made with him. "furthermore, these methods are cost-effective, because the scarce and expensive cobalt to a large extent by plenty of disposable nickel will be replaced," the company acisa dirt.
the cathode is changing
a very similar argument siyamend ingo al barazi from the german rohstoffagentur (dera). the kathodenmechanismus is crucial for the gesamtkobaltnachfrage, "says geologist of dera, which in 2010 at the federal institute for geosciences and raw materials was established. perhaps the foreseeable trend away from cobalt also had influence on the be: "price for a ton of cobalt has in recent months," says al barazi almost halved. although the demand of current 117 000 to 225 000 tonnes in 2006.
2017 was the geologist in the congo. four fifths of the kobalts in "regular" industrial entities of international bergbaukonzernen won. one fifth of all the more or less legal reduction with hoe and shovel, often by the authorities will be tolerated. up to 200 000 people work in his estimation, and not infrequently in shabby conditions in smallscale mining. children, amnesty and african resources watch are always on the use of tens of thousands of children, has al barazi in he visited mines could not be seen. but that entire families of the kobaltgewinnung attention is clear and understandable, such as al barazi calculates a tonne of ore contains two percent of cobalt. in a kobaltpreis of 50 000 dollars as in 2016 remain well 500 dollars. however, this price level is over.
in the processing, china is ahead
noteworthy is the dominance of chinese enterprises in the processing of kobalts, raffinadeproduktion (see chart). in addition to the finnish freeport cobalt with a share of 15%, the belgian umicore (three per cent) and the russian's partner nornickel (two per cent), the global market is in chinese hands. we must therefore do not, in principle, be afraid, "said the rohstoffmarktkenner al barazi. the chinese have a self-interest in stable supply relationships. and if it fears have given were now from the market disappeared, as the prices of rare earths in recent years work.
basf is a nickel
and the kobaltsubstitution. from 2020, at al barazi expected an increased proportion of cells with a kathodenmaterial in ratio of 8: 1: 1: 80% nickel and each ten percent manganese and cobalt. today, the most commonly used batteries a ratio of 5: 3: 2, the proportion of manganese and cobalt were halved, so if the technology prevails.(徳囯ASK电容器)