XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 17
supply chain. Nonetheless, growth is picking up steadily in
the EU and the United States, galvanized by recent regula-
tory changes and a strong push internally to localize supply
chains. An estimated 120 to 150 new battery factories are
required to be constructed by the year 2030, globally. The
European Parliament and Council’s regulation has set out
an ambitious target to achieve a 50% lithium recovery from
all types of waste batteries by 2027, increasing to 80% by
2031 (Krishnasamy, 2022) but this is some distance from
being achieved.
Opportunities for decarbonization
The societal benefits in battery adoption could reduce
cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70
Gt CO2e between 2021 and 2050 in the road transport
sector alone but the mining and processing overhead associ-
ated with materials can exceed 40 to 95% of the total life-
cycle emissions of the vehicles (Fleischmann et al. 2023)!
So, there is an obvious desire to decarbonize production of
aluminum, steel, lithium and the battery itself. Recyling is
an area under active investigation and practice, but is still
much in its infancy for many critical minerals (Meskers at
al., 2023). One reported example is by Li-Cycle Holdings
Corporation that a combination of mechanical and hydro-
metallurgical processes in two stages to recover up to 95%
of lithium and other valuable metals from lithium-ion
batteries. In 2024 the company announced a partnership
with Daimler Truck North America to recycle lithium-ion
batteries from their electric vehicles that have reached the
end of their life cycle (Krishnasamy, 2024). Fingerprinting
how best to approach decarbonization of lithium process is
invariably complex given the different metal reserves and
resources and their respective metallurgical operations. In
summary, the principal paths are through lithium extrac-
tion from hard rock mining, brine evaporation, direct lith-
ium extraction (DLE), and battery recycling. Each method
has distinct characteristics and environmental impacts, but
current trends and technological advancements suggest
that DLE holds the greatest promise for sustainable lithium
extraction. The orders of magnitude of CO2 burden associ-
ated with the different processes, which are evidently widely
varying, as reported by Gasimov et al. (2024), Nicolaci et
al. (2023), Harvest (2024), and Benchmark team (2023).
DLE methods are obviously in principle attractive since
in terms of CO2 footprint they have a substantially lower
carbon footprint compared to hard rock mining (5,000–
15,000 kg CO2/1 t LCE) and brine evaporation (1,500–
5,000 kg CO2/1 t LCE). The reduced CO2 emissions are
primarily due to the less energy-intensive processes and the
utilization of renewable energy sources. This lower carbon
Source: United States Geological Survey (USGS) 2023
Figure 8. Estimates of top ten countries with the largest lithium reserves (measured in Mt)
supply chain. Nonetheless, growth is picking up steadily in
the EU and the United States, galvanized by recent regula-
tory changes and a strong push internally to localize supply
chains. An estimated 120 to 150 new battery factories are
required to be constructed by the year 2030, globally. The
European Parliament and Council’s regulation has set out
an ambitious target to achieve a 50% lithium recovery from
all types of waste batteries by 2027, increasing to 80% by
2031 (Krishnasamy, 2022) but this is some distance from
being achieved.
Opportunities for decarbonization
The societal benefits in battery adoption could reduce
cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70
Gt CO2e between 2021 and 2050 in the road transport
sector alone but the mining and processing overhead associ-
ated with materials can exceed 40 to 95% of the total life-
cycle emissions of the vehicles (Fleischmann et al. 2023)!
So, there is an obvious desire to decarbonize production of
aluminum, steel, lithium and the battery itself. Recyling is
an area under active investigation and practice, but is still
much in its infancy for many critical minerals (Meskers at
al., 2023). One reported example is by Li-Cycle Holdings
Corporation that a combination of mechanical and hydro-
metallurgical processes in two stages to recover up to 95%
of lithium and other valuable metals from lithium-ion
batteries. In 2024 the company announced a partnership
with Daimler Truck North America to recycle lithium-ion
batteries from their electric vehicles that have reached the
end of their life cycle (Krishnasamy, 2024). Fingerprinting
how best to approach decarbonization of lithium process is
invariably complex given the different metal reserves and
resources and their respective metallurgical operations. In
summary, the principal paths are through lithium extrac-
tion from hard rock mining, brine evaporation, direct lith-
ium extraction (DLE), and battery recycling. Each method
has distinct characteristics and environmental impacts, but
current trends and technological advancements suggest
that DLE holds the greatest promise for sustainable lithium
extraction. The orders of magnitude of CO2 burden associ-
ated with the different processes, which are evidently widely
varying, as reported by Gasimov et al. (2024), Nicolaci et
al. (2023), Harvest (2024), and Benchmark team (2023).
DLE methods are obviously in principle attractive since
in terms of CO2 footprint they have a substantially lower
carbon footprint compared to hard rock mining (5,000–
15,000 kg CO2/1 t LCE) and brine evaporation (1,500–
5,000 kg CO2/1 t LCE). The reduced CO2 emissions are
primarily due to the less energy-intensive processes and the
utilization of renewable energy sources. This lower carbon
Source: United States Geological Survey (USGS) 2023
Figure 8. Estimates of top ten countries with the largest lithium reserves (measured in Mt)