Lithium - extraction uses a lot of water in the driest areas of the world such as Bolivia.

How does this

affect local farmers?

Cons
Despite its overall advantages, lithium-ion has its drawbacks. It is fragile and requires a protection circuit
to maintain safe operation. Built into each pack, the protection circuit limits the peak voltage of each cell
during charge and prevents the cell voltage from dropping too low on discharge.

Lithium is highly reactive, it reacts to stimuli and is difficult to control. Influences such as high
environmental temperatures, too high charging voltage, short circuit, or even too much of a heavy strain
can cause an exothermic reaction in the battery
The gases, which are potentially fatal, can cause strong irritation to the skin, eyes and nasal passages,
and harm the wider environment.

Social
- The world's top lithium producer is Australia with 52.9% of global production.

Economical
- How much does it cost to produce lithium?
- 2019 → Expected average total cash cost across 11 operating hard-rock producers is
US$2,540/t LCE which compares with US$5,580/t LCE across nine brine operations.

- Is there a demand for lithium?

- Lithium demand will go up.
- One bullish point to lithium producers who will sell more lithium.
- Then as lithium demand soars, so will lithium prices to spur the build-out of new mines
and meet the growing demand from EVs.

- Why is the lithium price decreasing?

- Trends in Q1 2020 have seen monthly average prices fall further to <US$7,000/t Li2CO3
for the first time since 2014, eroding price increases caused by forecast strong demand
growth in the lithium-ion battery industry and uncertainty over future supply.

- The economics of minerals extraction

- Develop an understanding of supply-demand drivers
- Identify and model materials locations, how minerals resources are captured, global value
chains from extraction to manufacturing end-use
- Identify and resolve potential bottlenecks, trade issues and other potential risks to value
chain integrity
- Research dependence of extraction of lithium on other materials like potash
- Identify and model manufacturing locations for batteries and alternative energy system
components and implications for the supply of raw material on manufacturing and
implications for the supply of manufactured components on global deployment

Environmental
- Extraction of Lithium
- Miners drill a hole in salt flats
 - Pump salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface
- After several months the water evaporates, leaving a mixture of manganese, potassium,
borax and lithium salts
- It is filtered and placed into another evaporation pool

- The lithium extraction process uses approximately 500,000 gallons of water per metric ton of
lithium.
- This can endanger the communities where the lithium is being mined because it can
cause droughts or extreme scarcity of food.

- Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, holds more than half the world’s supply of the metal beneath its salt
flats → Driest places on earth.
- Tibet: toxic chemicals including hydrochloric acid can leak from the evaporation pools into the
water supply
- used in the processing of lithium, and waste products that are filtered out of the brine
(high-concentration solution of NaCl in H2O).
- Chile: mining activities consume 65% of the region’s water
- Impact on local farmers to the point that some communities have to get water elsewhere.

Social/ethical implications for children in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile