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Politics : Politics of Energy
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To: RetiredNow who wrote (3798)1/2/2009 1:34:41 AM
From: Hawkmoon  Read Replies (2) of 86356
 
I specifically said that when demand rises, the price of lithium will rise to the point where it will become economically feasible to restart lithium production in this country.

No sh*t Sherlock.. and Lithium prices have already seen dramatic spikes over the past few years so it's quite likely we'll need to restart those Lithium extraction operations when they become profitable. The very reason they were shut down in the first place is because the Lithium Carbonate deposits in the Altacama desert were discovered to be far cheaper to extract and process.

But they won't be profitable until a certain price threshold is reached and investment capital deems it a safe enough risk to restart them for the long run.

The bottom line is that we have yet to even experience the potential costs that will be involved in obtaining sufficient Lithium to make all the batteries you're envisioning with your electric cars scenario. It's like the cost of oil back when there were only a few million autos on the road and comparing it to today when there are billions of cars and trucks.

We're likely to need every possible source of lithium to meet the requirements of your scenario. But that's going to have a direct impact upon the cost of the battery pack and it's affordability to the average consumer.

Hawk
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