Heavy! Super large lithium ore resources discovered in the Himalayas!

As the metal element with the smallest atomic weight, lithium has strong electrochemical activity and can react with other materials to form various compounds. at present, lithium and its compounds are widely used in glass and ceramics, batteries, aerospace and other downstream markets.

Recently, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed that the research team of the institute's Qinghai-Tibet Plateau discovered super-large lithium deposits in the Qiongjiagang area of the Himalayas.

Researcher Qin Kezhang, head of the scientific research team and director of the key Laboratory of Mineral Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the lithium deposit is roughly 3000 meters southwest of the Himalayan Xiongjiagang Peak. They have found nearly 40 spodumene pegmatite belts ranging from 10 meters to 100 meters in width, which form four dike groups and four ore belts. On the whole, Qiongjiagang lithium deposit has the characteristics of large spodumene particles, convenient transportation, exposed orebody, easy mining and so on.

In terms of scale, the lithium deposit is expected to become the third largest lithium deposit in China after Bailongshan in southern Xinjiang and methyl card in western Sichuan, and it is also the first pegmatite lithium deposit with industrial value in the Himalayas.

Qin Kezhang said that they conservatively estimated that the lithium oxide resources in the orebody could reach 1.0125 million tons, with an average lithium oxide content of 1.30%, but in fact, the real reserves of the mineral may far exceed the result.

The relevant results of this study have been published in the Journal of Rock.

01 the demand for lithium resources has risen sharply in recent years

In recent years, as countries around the world pay more attention to environmental protection issues, with the continuous investment of major automobile companies and policy stimulation, the demand of new energy vehicle industry is rising sharply. According to the global passenger car insurance data, the cumulative global sales of new energy passenger vehicles exceeded 6.31 million in 2021, more than 2.2 times that of 2020. Of these, 3.312 million new energy vehicles were sold in the Chinese market alone, up 275 per cent from the same period last year and accounting for 52 per cent of the global market share of new energy vehicles.

Driven by the end market, lithium salt, as one of the key raw materials of the power battery, the core component of new energy vehicles, has also seen a surge in demand in recent years. However, due to the uneven distribution of lithium resources, lithium upstream main materials resources such as high-quality salt lakes and spodumene concentrates are mostly located in Chile, Australia and other overseas countries. It has been proved that lithium resources are mainly salt lakes in China, and the quality of lithium resources is relatively low, so it is difficult to mine. As a result, China, as a major country in the manufacture of new energy vehicles, power batteries and lithium resources, currently imports about 75% of lithium resources from overseas, which also leads to a relatively weak bargaining power of lithium resources in China.

The discovery of Qiongjiagang lithium ore resources is of great significance to our country. if it is successfully exploited and operated in the future, it will greatly improve the external dependence of lithium resources and improve the stability of the supply system of new energy lithium industry chain.