Lithium battery dreams get a rude awakening in South America due to nervous investors
Lithium refining and battery-assembling facilities could help kickstart economies. But so far, public and private initiatives in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Chile have failed to deliver even a single lithium cell factory. And none are set to be built through 2025. South America controls about 70 percent of the world’s reserves of lithium, the metal used in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones and electric vehicles, but none of the infrastructure needed to put it to work. Lithium refining and battery-assembling…
Argentina likely to reach Lithium Superpower Status Amid Battery Boom
If all projects go ahead, output would reach 165,000 tons/yr Argentina says CITIC among companies wanting to mine lithium Argentina has some good news for Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. and bad news for lithium producers elsewhere: the country may be about to flood the market with lithium. After President Mauricio Macri removed currency and capital controls and taxes introduced by his predecessors, about 40 foreign companies began to consider opportunities in Argentina’s mining industry, more than half of those…
