Battery Chain Puts Lithium’s Green Credentials Under Microscope

Article content material

(Bloomberg) — A bunch backed by German car-making giants Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG has began a examine into the environmental influence of lithium mining in Chile, the second-largest provider of the important thing ingredient in rechargeable batteries.

GIZ, the German growth company operating the initiative, is wanting into how pumping up lithium-laced brine from beneath the Atacama salt flat is impacting native water provides and communities. The undertaking will final about two and a half years, a spokeswoman mentioned.

Article content material

It’s the most recent effort by the worldwide battery-supply chain to handle rising concern amongst buyers and most people over the sustainability of industries that may produce the constructing blocks for the clean-energy transformation.

Albemarle Corp. and Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA are ramping up output within the Atacama, which boasts the world’s largest reserves, in response to a projected tripling of worldwide demand. That’s shining a light-weight on the fragility of desert ecosystems as soon as seen as resilient to the tactic of pumping up brine into large evaporation swimming pools.

The salt flat is in one of many driest locations on Earth, the place copper mines, communities and tourism additionally compete for water.

“There’s a lack of consensus concerning the impacts and dangers of lithium mining and different financial exercise within the area,” the GIZ spokeswoman mentioned.

Article content material

The preliminary part of the Accountable Lithium Partnership initiative is being funded by Daimler, Volkswagen, BASF SE and Fairphone BV. It’ll search enter from events similar to copper and lithium producers, indigenous communities and authorities. SQM welcomed the initiative, saying it was aligned with its sustainability imaginative and prescient. Each SQM and Albemarle are working to attenuate brine and water use.

The partnership might lack tooth and appears like an try to spice up supply-chain perceptions from a German auto business that’s dealing with its personal environmental, social and governance points, mentioned Alonso Barros, a lawyer who works with communities surrounding Chilean lithium operations.

The examine is getting underway at a time of heightened scrutiny for mining corporations in Chile, the place a brand new structure is being drafted that might result in stricter environmental requirements.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Bloomberg.com