(TibetanReview.net, Jan20’24) – China has announced the discovery of a massive deposit of lithium, a key material in the country’s flourishing new-energy sector that has emerged as a pillar of economic growth, in an area that was previously part of eastern Tibet’s province of Kham (or Dotoe).
The revelation came at a time when China had doubled down on efforts to explore domestic resources as it aims to ramp up energy and resource security against the backdrop of an intensified global race for core resources that will help power growth, noted the scmp.com Jan 18.
The report cited China’s Ministry of Natural Resources as saying the huge reserve – about 1 million tonnes of the silvery-white alkali metal that is often called “the new oil” or “white gold” – was found in Yajiang county, Sichuan province, citing the Xinhua Insight news outlet reported on Jan 18.
Yajiang is Chinese name for Nyagchu, named after Nyagchukha, which is currently under the administration of the Garzê (Tibetan: Kardze) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in western Sichuan Province.
The report noted that the new discovery will increase China’s supply of a resource needed for lithium batteries, which are critical to many mass-market electric vehicles sold around the world.
The report cited the US Geological Survey as saying China already had about 7% of the world’s identified lithium resources, ranking sixth in the world after Bolivia, Argentina, the US, Chile and Australia.
So far, lithium discovered by China is mainly in Sichuan, Qinghai, Tibet, Xinjiang and Jiangxi, the report noted.
Besides, China is stated to refine around half of the world’s lithium and relies heavily on the overseas market for the material.
“China has been trying to market itself as the renewable battery centre for the world” and the new source of lithium could help bring further investments in China’s EV battery sector, the report said, quoting James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania.
China turns out roughly 70% of the world’s electric vehicle batteries and aims to boost the development of the EV industry, the report said, citing the China EV100 think tank.
Last year, the value of China’s combined exports of lithium batteries, solar batteries, and new-energy vehicles topped 1 trillion yuan (US$139 billion) for the first time, according to customs data. All three products use lithium, and they carry added economic significance as China is struggling to shift from traditional sectors such as property to fuel growth over the long run, the report said.
Given this context, China’s minister of natural resources has called the Yajiang discovery a “major breakthrough”.
Besides, China has said it will still increase regional cooperation with Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, a trio dubbed the “lithium triangle” because of its abundance of the resource.
Besides, lithium carbonate, widely used in lithium-ion batteries, can also be extracted from saltwater lakes, and China has 1,500 such features, giving it what Xinhua Insight called the “potential to explore even more lithium resources”. Most of the saltwater lakes are scattered in different parts of Tibet.
“The supply of critical minerals is a growing concern and a strategic topic for many countries, China included,” Yuan Sheng Yu, a managing director at Lux Research in Singapore, has said. “The recent major discovery further cements China’s dominant position in the lithium supply chain and subsequently its global position in batteries and electric vehicles.”
However, lithium projects remain “highly risky” with “not insignificant” delays between resource discoveries and their use in viable commercial projects, Yu has said.