Mining: Where do the minerals for EV batteries come from?
Most EV batteries use lithium-ion technology, which relies on five minerals. Mining is concentrated in a few places, dominated by China, Australia and Africa, raising questions about the reliability of the supply.
Lithium
The linchpin metal for EV batteries. Demand nearly doubled between 2017 and 2021, causing prices to surge.
An alkali metal that has a high energy density, meaning it can store a lot of energy. It's also highly reactive.
Comes from either brine or hard rock, largely mined in South America and Australia. Projects are now under development to extract it from brine, including at California’s Salton Sea.
Notes and sources:
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, National Minerals Information Center. Production values are estimates for 2022. Original data for country reserves were in tons. For consistency, converted — and rounded — data into metric tons to compare with production data, which originally is in metric tons as well. The United States does not disclose lithium production in order to protect company propriety data.