Electrification
Charted: The Most Expensive Battery Metals
The Five Most Expensive Battery Metals
Battery metal markets are booming on the back of rising electric vehicle sales.
Supply chain issues and a global rush to secure supplies have skyrocketed battery metal prices over the last year. And if battery metals remain expensive, the decade-long freefall in lithium-ion battery prices might come to a temporary halt.
The above infographic highlights the five most expensive battery metals as of December 2022 using prices from the Institute of Rare Earths and Strategic Metals (ISE).
How Much Do Battery Metals Cost?
Cobalt was by far the most expensive battery metal until late 2021, which was when lithium prices hit an inflection point, heading towards all-time highs.
A single tonne of lithium carbonate, one of the refined forms of lithium that’s used in batteries, now costs over $80,000, up from around $6,500 at the beginning of 2021.
Metal | Price per tonne (6-month average) | Use in batteries |
---|---|---|
Lithium carbonate | $82,141 | Cathode |
Copper | $9,417 | Current collectors |
Cobalt sulfate | $8,767 | Cathode |
Nickel sulfate | $6,488 | Cathode |
Manganese sulfate | $947 | Cathode |
Prices have been converted from Euro to USD as of Dec. 8, 2022.
Lithium carbonate prices rose by around 496% in 2021, and have surged by over 100% year-to-date as of November 2022. Increasing EV demand and sales are driving prices from the demand side, with the lack of supply tightening the squeeze.
This year, lithium supplies have been affected by heatwaves in China, where some factories were temporarily shut down due to power shortages from drought-hit hydropower generation. From a broader perspective, it takes anywhere between three to five years for new lithium supply capacity to come online, making it difficult for suppliers to react quickly to rising demand.
Cobalt’s high cost is largely attributed to how geographically concentrated its supply is. Around 70% of global mined cobalt production comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Furthermore, cobalt mining in the DRC is associated with several human rights issues, including child labor.
The majority of the most expensive battery metals are used to build the cathode. The cathode is arguably the most important part of the battery, determining performance, longevity, and range. Copper is the only non-cathode material on the list. Thanks to its excellent electrical conductivity, copper is used as a current collector for battery anodes, serving as a medium for electric current and an outlet for heat.
On average, the cathode accounts for 51% of the cost of a single lithium-ion battery cell, largely due to the metals it contains.
What Does This Mean for EVs?
After falling by 89% from 2010 to 2021, lithium-ion battery pack prices are forecasted to rise this year, according to BloombergNEF.
Average battery pack prices are expected to increase from $132 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2021 to $135/kWh in 2022. While the increase is small, if prolonged, it could delay price parity between EVs and gas-powered cars, which is projected to occur once prices fall below $100/kWh.
In terms of the EV transition, higher battery metal prices could ultimately end up increasing the cost of the average electric vehicle, potentially becoming a speed bump to EV adoption. Consequently, an increase in battery metal supply and the subsequent stabilization in prices will be critical in keeping EV momentum on track.
Electrification
Will Direct Lithium Extraction Disrupt the $90B Lithium Market?
Visual Capitalist and EnergyX explore how direct lithium extraction could disrupt the $90B lithium industry.
Will Direct Lithium Extraction Disrupt the $90B Lithium Market?
Current lithium extraction and refinement methods are outdated, often harmful to the environment, and ultimately inefficient. So much so that by 2030, lithium demand will outstrip supply by a projected 1.42 million metric tons. But there is a solution: Direct lithium extraction (DLE).
For this graphic, we partnered with EnergyX to try to understand how DLE could help meet global lithium demands and change an industry that is critical to the clean energy transition.
The Lithium Problem
Lithium is crucial to many renewable energy technologies because it is this element that allows EV batteries to react. In fact, it’s so important that projections show the lithium industry growing from $22.2B in 2023 to nearly $90B by 2030.
But even with this incredible growth, as you can see from the table, refined lithium production will need to increase 86.5% over and above current projections.
2022 (million metric tons) | 2030P (million metric tons) | |
---|---|---|
Lithium Carbonate Demand | 0.46 | 1.21 |
Lithium Hydroxide Demand | 0.18 | 1.54 |
Lithium Metal Demand | 0 | 0.22 |
Lithium Mineral Demand | 0.07 | 0.09 |
Total Demand | 0.71 | 3.06 |
Total Supply | 0.75 | 1.64 |
The Solution: Direct Lithium Extraction
DLE is a process that uses a combination of solvent extraction, membranes, or adsorbents to extract and then refine lithium directly from its source. LiTASTM, the proprietary DLE technology developed by EnergyX, can recover an incredible 300% more lithium per ton than existing processes, making it the perfect tool to help meet lithium demands.
Additionally, LiTASTM can refine lithium at the lowest cost per unit volume directly from brine, an essential step in meeting tomorrow’s lithium demand and manufacturing next-generation batteries, while significantly reducing the footprint left by lithium mining.
Hard Rock Mining | Underground Reservoirs | Direct Lithium Extraction | |
---|---|---|---|
Direct CO2 Emissions | 15,000 kg | 5,000 kg | 3.5 kg |
Water Use | 170 m3 | 469 m3 | 34-94 m3 |
Lithium Recovery Rate | 58% | 30-40% | 90% |
Land Use | 464 m2 | 3124 m2 | 0.14 m2 |
Process Time | Variable | 18 months | 1-2 days |
Providing the World with Lithium
DLE promises to disrupt the outdated lithium industry by improving lithium recovery rates and slashing emissions, helping the world meet the energy demands of tomorrow’s electric vehicles.
EnergyX is on a mission to become a worldwide leader in the sustainable energy transition using groundbreaking direct lithium extraction technology. Don’t miss your chance to join companies like GM and invest in EnergyX to transform the future of renewable energy.
Electrification
Chart: The $400 Billion Lithium Battery Value Chain
In this graphic, we break down where the $400 billion lithium battery industry will generate revenue in 2030.
Breaking Down the $400 Billion Battery Value Chain
As the world transitions away from fossil fuels toward a greener future, the lithium battery industry could grow fivefold by 2030. This shift could create over $400 billion in annual revenue opportunities globally.
For this graphic, we partnered with EnergyX to determine how the battery industry could grow by 2030.
Exploring the Battery Value Chain
The lithium battery value chain has many links within it that each generate their own revenue opportunities, these include:
- Critical Element Production: Involves the mining and refining of materials used in a battery’s construction.
- Active materials: Creating and developing materials that react electrochemically to allow batteries to charge and discharge.
- Battery cells: Involves the production of rechargeable elements of a battery.
- Battery packs: Producing packs containing a series of connected battery cells. Generally, these come in two types: NMC/NMCA, the standard in North America and Europe, and LFP, the standard in China.
- Recycling: Reusing battery components within new batteries.
But these links aren’t equal, each one is projected to generate different levels of revenue by 2030:
China 🇨🇳 | Europe 🇪🇺 | United States 🇺🇸 | Rest of World 🌍 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total | $184B | $118B | $62B | $39B |
Critical Element Production | $37B | $25B | $15B | $8B |
Active Materials | $54B | $31B | $14B | $11B |
Battery Packs | $34B | $22B | $11B | $7B |
Battery Cells | $53B | $37B | $20B | $11B |
Recycling | $6B | $3B | $2B | $2B |
On the surface, battery cell production may contribute the most revenue to the battery value chain. However, lithium production can generate margins as high as 65%, meaning lithium production has potential to yield large margins.
How Much Lithium Is Available?
Just a few countries hold 81% of the world’s viable lithium. So, supply bottlenecks could slow the growth of the lithium battery industry:
Nation | Viable Lithium Reserves (2023) |
---|---|
Chile 🇨🇱 | 9.3M t |
Australia 🇦🇺 | 6.2M t |
Argentina 🇦🇷 | 2.7M t |
China 🇨🇳 | 2M t |
U.S. 🇺🇸 | 1M t |
Rest of World 🌍 | 4.9M t |
Supplying the World With Batteries
Supplying the world with lithium is critical to the battery value chain and a successful transition from fossil fuels. Players like the U.S. and the EU, with increasingly large and growing lithium needs, will need to maximize local opportunities and work together to meet demand.
EnergyX is on a mission to become a world leader in the global transition to sustainable energy, using cutting-edge direct lithium extraction to help supply the world with lithium.
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