This week Brazil shipped the world’s first green lithium, produced in the Jequitinhonha Valley, in Minas Gerais, from the Port of Vitória (Espirito Santo State). The production, by Sigma Lithium, is a pioneer for having raised the level of industrial sustainability by being triple zero (zero carbon, zero waste and zero harmful chemicals). Lithium is used in electric vehicle batteries.
Argentina's first National Plant for the Technological Development of Lithium Cells and Batteries will start production in September on the premises of the National University of La Plata (UNLP), Y-TEC (a subsidiary of the state-owned oil company YPF) head Roberto Salvarezza announced Thursday.
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Thursday published a report called “Extraction and industrialization of lithium. Opportunities and challenges for Latin America and the Caribbean,” recommending the region's countries devise a productive development agenda around lithium to promote its extraction for the benefit of economic activities directly and indirectly related to the mineral.
Argentina will overtake Chile as the world's second-largest lithium producer by 2035, according to the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco), it was reported in Santiago.
The European Union is working on agreements with Argentina and Chile with the purpose of increasing access to critical minerals such as lithium, essential for the batteries of electric automobiles and to comply with the EU's less carbon-intensive economy guidelines.
Chile's Government Monday approved the creation of the Lithium and Salt Flats Committee to add to the National Lithium Strategy announced last month in areas involving the Economic Development Agency (Corfo) and also as a technical advisory body, it was reported in Santiago.
A group of lawmakers from Argentine's ruling Everybody's Front (Frente de Todos - FdT) has launched an initiative to nationalize the country's lithium resources, it was reported Wednesday in Buenos Aires.
General Laura Jane Richardson, the head of the US Southern Command, told the House of Representatives this week that “China continues to expand its influence” in Latin America and “manipulates” its governments through “predatory investment practices.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) signed the decree whereby the country's lithium reserves belong to the federal state. Let the nation be the owner of this strategic mineral used in the production of batteries for electric cars, the head of state said from Sonora in the municipality of Bacadéhuachi.
South America's ABC lithium-producing countries Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile are considering joint policies to set the sale price of the mineral, Télam reported Thursday.