The Tesla Gigafactories Are Coming. Can Global Lithium Supply Keep Up?

fool.com ^

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The greens ought to be outraged at the environmental destruction that lithium mining wreaks, but their hypocrisy is very flexible.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1166387/In-search-Lithium-The-battle-3rd-element.html

[4rcane]

theres no need to worry about supply. The market take care of itself - its self adjusting. As prices goes up, production increases as well

[Jonty30]

If the research in regards to compounds is correct, lithium may be a by-gone era in the not so distant future.

[4rcane]

link? Never heard of this

[Sacajaweau]

Lithium will become part of China’s blackmail plan.

[Fungi]

Greens have no objective other than returning us to a seventh century model—same as the islamofascists

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Or not.

I don't put much stock in soothsaying.

That's what the global-warming enthusiasts do.

[Flag_This]

I guess they’ll just have to go with aluminum / graphite batteries.

[Jonty30]

It’s one of the major areas of research right now. Lots of links on the subject.

http://www.asianscientist.com/2014/08/in-the-lab/beating-lithium-ion-batteries-flat-2014/

[HangnJudge]

Not to mention magnesium battery research

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/semiconductors/materials/taiwanese-researchers-report-progress-towards-a-magnesiumion-battery

[Tucker39]

There’s a new type battery in the offing that will make all of them obsolete, using aluminum ions in some way as part of its structure. Recharges in minutes, holds a greater charge and has an incredible service life with no diminishing of its capacity over it’s lifetime.

[umgud]

Where is the Clinton’s cut?

[Jonty30]

This area of research is far from fanciful. It’s quite strong, more inevitable than not.

[Moonman62]

I’ve seen numerous articles for decades claiming some new type of battery. Almost none of them ever made it to market, and the few that did, didn’t make much of an impact.

[DavidLSpud]

Will they get back their investment...

with oil and gas prices deflating?

( ; )

[Salvation]

Time to invest in lithium.

[marktwain]

Lithium ion has had enormous impacts.

[The Antiyuppie]

“I’ve seen numerous articles for decades claiming some new type of battery. “

Many of them have very fragile structures (won’t survive the heat/cold/vibration of a car), or have very high self-discharge rates - for example, they might discharge by themselves in a day or two after a charge if you don’t use it.

The article doesn’t seem too concerned about the total supply of lithium. There may be “a good amount” of it, but there is NOT a large amount of it that can be mined/refined inexpensively. After that is gone, the costs will go up A LOT.