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As we mark Lithium Month, a piece in the online journal ChinaDialogue.net highlights the geo-politics of lithium mining, with a full dollop of irony that our green-tech dreams — read, lithium ion batteries — may have their origins in metals that pose considerable environmental challenges as they’re extracted from the earth.

The piece pivots on the fact that China, which ranks behind Chile, Australia and Argentina as the world’s leading lithium-producing nations, is now planning to exploit the salt beds of the high Tibetan Plateau.  For the analyst/author, the dangers posed are largely environmental; others will register the political and social consequences of extracting resources from a region that the U.S. Congress ranks among the world’s captive nations. In either case, it’s a sign that a more diverse supply of lithium — like so many other metals and minerals — is a matter not only of economic importance, but political and even moral importance as well.

On Wednesday, December 14, I attended the first-ever meeting of the Congressional Rare Earths Caucus. The brainchild of Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman, a leader on the issue of rare earths and resource dependency, the new caucus will push for rare earths supply chain.  The U.S. Magnetic Materials Association’s Jeff Green conducted the briefing, focusing on (…) more

India aims to increase its GDP by $210 billion from the mining and mineral sector by 2025, as outlined in a recent government strategy paper, according to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly.  While resource consumption in India has been on the rise, the paper laments that “performance has been poor both in input and output parameters (…) more

Scientific American reports on ARPA-e — the U.S. Government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy — an effort to bring the defense R&D prowess of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, founded after the Soviet Sputnik launch in 1958) to the renewable energy challenge.  ARPA-e’s 2011 annual conference showcased lithium battery technologies — our featured metal (…) more

20 years ago, China’s Deng Xiao Peng said that “Saudi Arabia has oil, but China has rare earths.”  Few paid attention at the time, but today, Deng’s dictum is beginning to ring alarm bells in the world’s industrialized nations.  This brief video report from EnergyNow underlines the geo-politics of renewable energy, and the dangers of (…) more

BusinessWeek today reports the findings of a new study by PwC predicting chronic shortages of 14 metals and minerals critical to major industrial sectors ranging from chemicals and  aviation to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.  Lithium, American Resources’ metal of the month, makes the list.  The report, based on a survey of (…) more

Much was made of a recent discovery of significant rare earth deposits on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean. Some were even heralding the beginning of the end of China’s rare earth near-total monopoly. Lending credibility to those cautioning against this sentiment, a new Canadian-led study published in the journal Geology concludes that “accessible supplies (…) more

Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a technology for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that allows them to hold a charge ten times longer than current batteries, and charge ten times faster, according to R&D Magazine.  Going forward, the engineers are looking to develop a new safety mechanism for lithium-ion batteries prompting them to automatically and reversibly (…) more

As promised, American Resources is closing out the year with yet another feature month.  After “drilling down” into copper and antimony to highlight the breadth of our mineral needs, we’re making lithium our “metal of the month.” Over the next few weeks, we will showcase lithium’s utilities as well as associated challenges.  Demand for lithium (…) more