[wheelguy]

Researchers at the Atomic Minerals Directorate, a unit of India's Atomic Energy Commission, have estimated lithium reserves of 14,100 tonnes in a small patch of land surveyed in the Southern Karnataka district.

"The present data provides a total estimation of available Li2O as about 30,300 tonnes over an area of 0.5 km x 5 km, which works out to about 14,100 tonnes of lithium metal," said N Munichandraiah, Emeritus Professor at the Indian Institute of Science and an expert on battery technologies.

But, to put this in perspective, the lithium find is small compared to many major producers. As the professor puts it: "If one compares with 8.6 million tonnes in Chile, 2.8 million tonnes in Australia, 1.7 million tonnes in Argentina or 60,000 tonnes in Portugal, 14,100 tonnes is not that large."

‘Not Enough Exploration Effort’

Experts say while India requires lithium for its energy needs, there has been no comprehensive effort to map local reserves of lithium so far.

“We have not explored so far whether we have adequate reserves of lithium because of concerns of radioactivity,” says Dr Rahul Walawalkar, president of India Energy Storage Alliance, a grouping that looks at battery technologies. “We don’t know the potential”.

Source

[Rahul Bhalgat]

One question:

Can the lithium from a used lithium ion battery (whose life is over) be recycled for making a new lithium ion battery?

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

One question:

Can the lithium from a used lithium ion battery (whose life is over) be recycled for making a new lithium ion battery?

Yes it can be recovered. But this as of now involves high costs and causes a lot of pollution.

[ambivalent_98]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Yes it can be recovered. But this as of now involves high costs and causes a lot of pollution.

Maybe India can be a supplier and with Lithium being the next gold its vital to identify deposits.

[libranof1987]

Let's not get too excited about this. There is a significant downside to discovering Lithium reserves in our backyard. The environment cost of the subsequent mining.

According to a report by Friends of the Earth, lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and causes air contamination. In Argentina’s Salar de Hombre Muerto, locals claim that lithium operations have contaminated streams used by humans and livestock, and for crop irrigation. In Chile, there have been clashes between mining companies and local communities, who say that lithium mining is leaving the landscape marred by mountains of discarded salt and canals filled with contaminated water with an unnatural blue hue.

it uses a lot of water – approximately 500,000 gallons per tonne of lithium. In Chile’s Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed 65 per cent of the region’s water. That is having a big impact on local farmers – who grow quinoa and herd llamas – in an area where some communities already have to get water driven in from elsewhere.

There’s also the potential – as occurred in Tibet – for toxic chemicals to leak from the evaporation pools into the water supply. These include chemicals, including hydrochloric acid, which are used in the processing of lithium into a form that can be sold, as well as those waste products that are filtered out of the brine at each stage. In Australia and North America, lithium is mined from rock using more traditional methods, but still requires the use of chemicals in order to extract it in a useful form. Research in Nevada found impacts on fish as far as 150 miles downstream from a lithium processing operation.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lith...ronment-impact

Being a country where politicians, in cahoots with local thugs, will sell the country to the dogs the moment they sense money, this news can potentially cause more harm than good.

[gururajrv]

Woah! If it’s true, then Wakanda is for real

Mandya is new Wakanda for EV’s technology boost!

[ds.raikkonen]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Let's not get too excited about this. There is a significant downside to discovering Lithium reserves in our backyard. The environment cost of the subsequent mining.

Being a country where politicians, in cahoots with local thugs, will sell the country to the dogs the moment they sense money, this news can potentially cause more harm than good.

Exactly, the effects will be similar to one being faced by many people living in areas of the US where fracking wells have been dug up by energy companies and major contamination issues have led to medical problems.