The universe was born tiny, dense, and extremely hot. Initially, it was all energy contained in a volume of space that expanded by a factor of 100 septillion in a fraction of a second. Imagine a single cell rapidly expanding to the size of the Milky Way. Elementary particles like quarks, photons, and electrons collided so furiously that no other matter existed. The Primeval Universe was a white-hot smoothie made in a blender.
According to cosmologists, the universe began with only three elements: hydrogen, helium, and lithium. Lithium is one of the three primordial elements in our environment. The sun, stars, and meteorites all blaze brightly with the flame of this extremely reactive element. On Earth, lithium is still a key mineral component of granite rock and may be found in substantial quantities in seas, springs, and soils. Lithium has also made its way into mobile phones, electric vehicles, and holiday pyrotechnics. Lithium is found in all organs and tissues of the human body.
Johan August Arfvedson, a Swedish scientist, gave lithium its formal name in 1817. While researching petalite, a rich mineral deposit found in soil, he discovered the element on the distant island of Uto. The unusual material was lithium, after the Greek term lithos, which means “from stone.”
CHASING WHITE GOLD
The lithium industry is expected to be able to supply the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries, even though estimates indicate that the demand for lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) will increase from around 500,000 metric tonnes in 2021 to three to four million metric tonnes by 2030. The industry’s capacity to react more quickly to growing demand may be fuelled by direct lithium extraction (DLE) and direct lithium to product (DLP), in addition to the expanding traditional lithium supply, which is predicted to increase by more than 300% between 2021 and 2030. Although DLE and DLP technologies are still in their early stages and subject to volatility due to the industry’s “hockey stick” demand growth and lead times, they hold the promise of increasing supply, reducing the industry’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) footprint, and lowering costs, with already announced capacity contributing to approximately 10% of the 2030 lithium supply, as well as other less advanced projects in the pipeline.
With such high demand, should the world be concerned about future lithium supply? LCE output hit 0.54 million metric tonnes in 2021, up 32% from the previous year. The current base-case research indicates that lithium demand is 3.3 million metric tonnes, representing a compounded 25% growth rate. Due to the short lead times associated with new lithium production, only 2.7 million metric tonnes of lithium will be accessible in 2030; freshly announced greenfield and brownfield expansions will meet the remaining demand.
Almost all lithium is mined in Australia, Latin America, and China (which account for 98% of output in 2020). A recently announced pipeline of projects is expected to bring new players and geographies to the lithium-mining landscape, including Western and Eastern Europe, Russia, and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) members. This stated capacity base should be sufficient to allow supply to expand at a 20% annual pace, reaching approximately 2.7 million metric tonnes of LCE in 2030.
FUTURE-PROOFING ENERGY
Meeting the demand for lithium will not be a simple task. Despite COVID-19’s impact on the car sector, electric vehicle (EV) sales surged by more than 50% in 2020, doubling to almost seven million by 2021. Lithium prices have increased by almost 550% in the past year due to the surge in EV demand. Lithium hydroxide prices exceeded $65,000 per tonne by March 1, 2022, while lithium carbonate prices exceeded $75,000 per metric tonne (compared to a five-year average of around $14,500 per tonne).
Lithium is necessary for all traction batteries in EVs and consumer electronics. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are extensively utilised for several applications, such as energy storage and aviation. There are still many unanswered issues about how the battery business will impact future lithium demand since battery content fluctuates depending on the active materials mix and new battery technologies join the market. For instance, compared to the currently popular mixes, such as a graphite anode, a lithium metal anode, which improves battery energy density, needs about twice as much lithium per kilowatt-hour.
The medical literature and popular commercials were full of acclaim for lithium. Dr. John Cade, an Australian psychiatrist, is credited for conducting the first experiments with high dosages of lithium citrate and lithium carbonate as a therapy for manic depression in 1949. In animal and human testing, he discovered that lithium calmed mood, recovered memory, and increased cognitive performance, even in the most difficult patients. Some medical historians believe Cade ushered in contemporary psychopharmacology due to his well-structured research and striking findings.
Although numerous well-supported ideas exist, the pharmacological processes by which lithium functions are still not fully known. Lithium has two critical roles in the body’s neurochemistry: mending damaged neurons and encouraging neuronal development. The proposed mechanisms for lithium’s effect on mood balancing include changes in dopamine, glutamate, and GABA levels in synapses, as well as modulation of secondary messenger pathways that affect neurotransmission, such as the adenylyl cyclase system, cAMP signaling pathway and phosphoinositide system. Accumulating data suggests that lithium’s various neuroprotective activities entail direct changes in the expression of many genes.
The most exciting recent study, however, has focused on the use of lithium to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the only cause of mortality in the top ten in America that cannot be avoided, cured, or delayed. A rapidly rising community of researchers believes that lithium may have major benefits in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s.
It has been demonstrated that lithium inhibits the main enzyme responsible for the development of amyloid plaques and the neurofibrillary tangles associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This enzyme is a serine/threonine protein kinase involved in brain development and growth called glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3). Notably, synaptic remodeling, which facilitates memory formation, depends on specific GSK-3 levels. Lithium is powerful, reliable, affordable, and safe at modest dosages.
Everything we’ve done with lithium, including its miraculous uses in energy, industry, and psychiatry, is based on this fundamental structure, a kind of magic around which we’re gradually designing our future. Lightness is often related with abundance on the periodic table, with the lightest two elements accounting for about 99% of total mass in the universe. However, lithium, the third lightest element, remains inexplicably sparse. “It’s unusual. It’s unique. There’s very little of it, yet it plays an important part in the cosmos.”
