Explained | Why is lithium so important? What do the new findings from Jammu and Kashmir mean? Premium

Estimates peg the demand for lithium to rise to three to four million metric tonnes by 2030

The story so far: The Union Ministry of Mines announced on Thursday, February 10, that lithium reserves had been found in Jammu and Kashmir, a first in the country. The Geological Survey of India established 5.9 million tonnes of inferred lithium resources in the Salal-Haimana area of Reasi District in Jammu and Kashmir.

Officials in the Union Territory said the discovery could boost the manufacturing of rechargeable batteries for electric cars, smartphones, and laptops and cut India’s dependence on lithium imports. ​​Currently, India is completely import-dependent for minerals like lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

This grey, shiny, non-ferrous metal is the lightest and the least dense of all metals. Being the third element in the periodic table after gases hydrogen and helium, the alkali metal lithium is highly reactive. Multiple countries have ramped up efforts to find reserves of lithium, sometimes dubbed ‘white gold’, in what has been called the “new era gold rush”. From about 500,000 metric tonnes (MT) of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2021, the demand for lithium is expected to reach three million to four million MT in 2030.

In January this year, the U.S government announced loans worth $700 million to a metal producer to build a lithium mining project in the State of Nevada. As the European Union attempts to bolster its own supply of lithium, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last year that “lithium and rare earths (elements) will soon be more important than oil and gas.”

So, why is lithium in such demand? Besides being used in batteries to power smartphones, laptops and other gadgets, lithium is an essential component in the rechargeable batteries that run electric vehicles (EVs) and in storage batteries for energy from renewable sources.

As countries move toward clean energy technologies to meet their Paris Agreement climate pledges, the transition to electric vehicles is key as vehicular pollution accounts for a significant proportion of carbon emissions. The U.S. plans to make 50% of its new vehicle fleet electric by 2030. The EU in October approved a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035. India has also set a target of 30% sales penetration of EVs in private cars and 80% in two- and three-wheelers by 2030.

In 2019, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for their contributions to the development of the lithium-ion battery. Lithium is used in electric car batteries because of its properties— lightness and energy density.