Lithium: the white gold of the Andes

online lecture by Petra Schultheiss-Reimann on June 20th, 2023, 3 p.m

Moderator: Eva Wille

The largest deposits of lithium are found in the Andes of Latin America. The rare metal lithium has become increasingly important in recent decades because of the batteries in mobile electronic devices such as smartphones, laptops and above all because of electric cars. Lithium occurs on earth in so-called salars as brine and in ore deposits in the form of pegmatite. The brines are processed by water evaporation and precipitation due to the different solubilities of the salts found in the lakes. The technical grade lithium carbonate obtained can be bagged, shipped and processed well. The most significant key application of lithium is the lithium-ion battery. Lithium itself is produced from lithium chloride using fused-salt electrolysis. Will there be enough lithium deposits in the future? That is why it is important to develop technologies to recycle raw materials. There are now interesting developments, one from Evonik will be presented at the end.