Published December 2023
Global demand for lithium is currently about 173 kta, is forecast to more than double by the end of 2027, and could then increase more than 3-fold by 2040. Almost all of this increased consumption will go into passenger electric vehicles.
Although mining produces only about 134 kta of lithium worldwide now, the high volume of identified resources shows that supplying this expanding market is possible. New exploration developments and new mining efforts are being announced worldwide. Among battery chemicals, lithium hydroxide monohydrate is currently critical to enabling this future.
About 64% of mined lithium comes from hard rock ore now, and this proportion is expected to increase. Pegmatite ore often contains significant lithium mineral deposits. Among lithium-bearing minerals, spodumene has the highest lithium content and is also among the most common. A concentrate of spodumene is extracted from run-of-mine ore, and battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate is produced from spodumene concentrate containing 6+% by weight lithium oxide.
This first-of-a-kind report presents design and Level 3 economics for the following processes and operations.
- Production of lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) from spodumene concentrate
- Production of lithium carbonate from spodumene concentrate via LHM
- Production of spodumene concentrate from run-of-mine ore, and
- Mining of a pegmatite ore.
The production capacities of the mine and adjacent ore processing plant are 1,610 kta and 197 kta, respectively, with ore production matching the feed rate of ore into the processing plant.
The LHM plant design produces 31 kta of battery grade LHM. If used to produce nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode active materials, at the present state-of-the-art, this rate of LHM production equates to about 50–55+ GWh of energy per year. The lithium carbonate plant uses the same feed rate of 6 wt% spodumene concentrate as used for the LHM plant and produces 27 kta of battery grade product.
Bottom-up economics for the mine and ore processing plant are presented based on a Canadian location, and those for the LHM and lithium carbonate plants are presented for locations on the U.S. Gulf Coast, Canada, and China. Because prices for lithium-based materials were extraordinarily volatile during preparation of this report, some cost strips are presented for two different time periods spaced 6 months apart.
The process designs are described in detail, with discussion of key process features and the process economics results. Technical aspects of lithium materials production in the LHM value chain are reviewed. Waste streams and carbon footprints for these processes are provided and discussed. The lithium raw materials industry is briefly overviewed.
The iPEP Navigator Lithium Materials interactive module provided with the report gives an economic snapshot for each process, allowing the user to select and compare the processes, units, and geographical regions of interest. In the case of lithium materials production, care is advised if comparing economics between regions (or even two mines within the same region) because some process parameters are sensitive to variable ore compositions.