Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
China Lithium Probe Puts Spotlight on Reserves and ESG
Risks (2/2)
Annie Lee
Thu, March 9, 2023 at 8:46 p.m. PST
(continue)
Dirty Mining
Some Chinese companies had already been pulled up by the
government for infringements, including incidents of pollution, before the
February inspection of Yichun. Another issue is so-called high-grading, where
miners extract the best material first without worrying about how to conserve a
deposit.
“High-grading is always a concern in these unregulated, marginal mines that will unfortunately lead to more rapid exhaustion of the reserve,” said Martin Jackson, head of Battery Raw Materials at CRU Group.
For lepidolite, which accounted for about a fifth of China’s lithium output in 2021, according to the China Geology journal, there are additional costs arising from its low-yield that directly conflict with lithium’s climate-friendly credentials. Yichun’s lepidolite rocks contain less than 1% lithium, according to the journal, which typically makes extraction more energy-intensive and expensive.
Lepidolite is “is a little bit opaque to most of us, but what we see, generally speaking, is very high-cost production,” Paul Graves, the chief executive officer of US producer Livent Corp., told a BMO Capital Markets conference in February.
“I don’t like the word dirty,” he said. “I just can’t think of a better one. A difficult process to do in an environmentally friendly way.”
For every ton of lithium carbonate equivalent processed from lepidolite, 200 tons of waste is produced, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. All that needs treating and disposing of, said Tom Drabble, an ESG analyst at the consultancy.
“Some companies opt to sell the waste, but others have started to collect waste in large tailings ponds,” he said. “Tailings ponds have associated risks, if not managed correctly, of adversely affecting local communities through water pollution via leaching and taking up large areas of land.”
Some of China’s biggest names in batteries, including Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. and Gotion High-Tech Co., have invested in lepidolite mining to lock in supplies. That poses the question of whether they’ll eventually be penalized by investors for using raw materials with a big carbon footprint.
The checks have no impact on CATL and its project in Yichun is progressing as planned, the company told investors in a call on Thursday, according to a filing. CATL operates in strict accordance with local laws and regulations, it said. Gotion didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
While it’s too soon to assess the downstream impact, Chinese output that relies on domestic lithium production “is inferior to overseas-sourced, China-processed lithium in several key ESG areas,” Dennis Ip and Leo Ho, analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets, said in an emailed response to questions.
China’s lithium resources are mainly concentrated in Jiangxi, Qinghai, Sichuan and Tibet. It’s started looking in Xinjiang, too, a region that’s drawn scrutiny from US lawmakers amid allegations of forced labor that Beijing has denied. Chinese miners, automakers and battery manufacturers have snapped up resources further afield, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, increasing competition globally for a key resource.
“How to best utilize China’s reserves and how to be more self-sufficient have become more and more important, especially now there’s more geological tension, like between China and the US,” said Matty Zhao, head of Asia-Pacific research on basic materials at Bank of America Corp.
Translation
（繼續）
骯髒的開採
在 2 月對宜春進行檢查之前，一些中國公司已經因污染事件等侵權行為被政府取締。 另一個問題是所謂的高品質，礦工首先開採最好的材料，而不去擔心如何保存礦床。
CRU 集團電池原材料負責人Martin Jackson說： “在這些不受監管的邊緣礦場中，高品質一直是一個問題，不幸的是，這將導致儲備更快耗盡。”
據《中國地質》雜誌報導，對於佔 2021 年中國鋰產量約五分之一的鋰雲母而言，其低產量會帶來額外成本，這與鋰的氣候友好型本質直接衝突。 據該雜誌稱，宜春的鋰雲母岩石中的鋰含量不到 1%，這通常會使開採更加耗能且成本更高。
美國生產商 Livent Corp. 的首席執行官Paul Graves在 BMO Capital Markets二月的會議上說，鋰雲母“對我們大多數人來說有點不透明，但一般來說，我們看到的是成本非常高的生產”。
他說:“我不喜歡骯髒這個詞” ;“我只是想不出一個更好的詞。 以環保方式進行是個艱難過程。”
根據 Benchmark Mineral Intelligence 的數據，每當從鋰雲母中加工出 1 噸碳酸鋰，就會產生 200 噸廢物。 該諮詢公司的 ESG 分析師Tom Drabble表示，所有這些都需要處理和處置。
他說: “一些公司選擇出售廢料，但其他公司已經開始在大型尾礦池中收集廢料”; “尾礦池存在相關風險，如果管理不當，會通過浸出造成水污染和佔用大面積土地，從而對當地社區產生不利影響。”
中國電池領域的一些知名企業，包括當代新能源科技有限公司(CATL)和國軒高科，已投資鋰雲母開採以鎖定供應。 這就提出了一個問題，即他們最終是否會因使用碳足跡大的原材料而受到投資者的懲罰。
一份文件顯示，CATL 在周四的電話告訴投資者，稽查對公司沒有影響，其在宜春的項目正在按計劃進行。 該公司表示，CATL 嚴格按照當地法律法規運營。 國軒沒有立即回應置評請求。
Daiwa Capital Markets 分析師 Dennis Ip 和 Leo Ho 在回覆寫有問題的電子郵件中表示，雖然現在評估下游影響還為時過早，但對依賴國鋰的中國出產來說 “中國加工鋰在幾個關鍵 ESG 領域不如海外採購” 。
中國的鋰資源主要集中在江西、青海、四川和西藏。 也開始關注新疆，該地區因北京否認的強迫勞動指控而受到美國立法者的審查。 中國的礦工、汽車製造商和電池製造商已經在更遠的地方搶購資源，由阿根廷到津巴布韋，加劇了全球對關鍵資源的競爭。
美國銀行亞太基礎材料研究負責人 Matty Zhao 說: “如何最好地利用中國的儲備以及如何更加自給自足變得越來越重要，尤其是現在在地理上有更大緊張, 正如中美之間的局勢緊張” 。
So, Beijing is showing its inability to manage
its lithium scarce natural resources to meet production needs. A government
inspection last month has shut some producers at a lithium mining hub in
eastern China. It is a clear signal that Beijing is turning its attention to
better managing its natural mineral resources against a backdrop of record
prices and short supply across the globe.
Note:
CRU group was founded
in 1969, it has consistently invested in primary research and robust
methodologies, and developed expert teams in key locations worldwide, including
in hard-to-reach markets such as China. CRU employs over 290 experts and has
more than 11 offices around the world, in Europe, the Americas, China, Asia and
Australia – its office in Beijing opened in 2004 and in Singapore in 2018. (https://www.crugroup.com/about-cru/)
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