The 18th Mining Forum ended in Moscow MINEX Russia 2022. This year the forum was held under the slogan "Sustainability and Sovereignty of the Russian Mining Industry". This year the RM and REE Association took part in the forum. The magazine "Rare Earths" acted as an information partner of the event.
The MINEX Russia Forum and Exhibition has been held since 2005 and is one of the largest industry platforms dedicated to topical issues of exploration, production and processing of minerals and the search for new solutions in the geological, mining and metallurgical industries of Russia and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union.
The forum provides an opportunity for government organizations, exploration, mining, metallurgical companies, developers of technological and digital solutions, suppliers and manufacturers of equipment, financial centers, consultants, investors to combine their competencies and experience, jointly find the best solutions and build fruitful cooperation, which is especially important in conditions crisis.
This year the RM and REE Association took part in the forum. A review report on the problems and prospects for the development of the lithium industry in Russia was made by Chairman of the Board of the Association of RM and REE Igor Demidov. He became a speaker of the session “Battery Metals. Raw material base, priorities of geological exploration, exploration technologies”.
Demidov, in particular, noted that the Russian resource base of lithium makes it possible to reliably fulfill the tasks of developing the rare metal direction of the Roadmap, listed the important steps that have already been taken, and spoke about the immediate and long-term plans to raise the lithium direction.
In his report "Prospects for the creation of an industry of lithium materials in the Russian Federation and its supply of raw materials" Demidov reviewed the drivers for the development of the lithium market, analyzed in detail the advantages and disadvantages of extracting lithium from various types of raw materials, spoke about the current state of lithium mining and the production of products based on it in Russia, and also listed what has already been done and is planned to be done to form the lithium industry in the Russian Federation .
Below are key excerpts from the speech.
“Lithium, as a metal, has long been in the shadow of the brilliance of gold. Gold was our everything, but now the situation is changing dramatically. Compared to gold, lithium is a more liquid and more dynamically growing metal, which has great prospects in terms of global consumption.
When we talk about green energy, about energy storage systems, we mean not only electric vehicles, but also equipment for space stations, and a huge military-industrial complex, and the development of the Arctic. The demand for batteries and energy storage will only grow until there is no other optimal alternative.
As oil and gas at the beginning of the 19th century became the driver of economic growth and industry in general, so lithium is becoming a new raw material base for high-tech industries. Growth prospects are astronomical. We see that the consumption of lithium products will grow by about 30 times. According to the resource endowment in the world: Chile accounts for 44% - these are, as a rule, brine hydromineral sources of lithium, the remaining shares are distributed between Australia (22%), Argentina (9%), China (7%) and other countries (18%) . Russia is among the top ten countries in terms of holders of lithium reserves.
The sources of lithium raw materials are divided into hydro-mineral and spodumene raw materials. Despite the fact that the cost of extraction from hydro-mineral raw materials is much lower, the share of production for the extraction of lithium from spodumene ores is now increasing.
The advantages of ore raw materials include: a high lithium content in the ore (1,2–1,8%), a large supply of raw materials in the world - in particular, in Russia, 17 ore deposits are included in the state balance sheet. Among the shortcomings are: long terms of development and the need to create a serious external infrastructure in the areas of localization of deposits.
The advantage of brine hydro-mineral raw materials is obvious: low OPEX even at low lithium concentrations. If we talk about the shortcomings, then this is, first of all: the low quality of brines, the lack of proven solutions for waste disposal, the difficulty in approving lithium reserves in hydromineral deposits, in putting them on the balance sheet, in their accounting and in their movement.
How is the lithium industry represented in Russia now?
There is no production of lithium in the Russian Federation from any type of raw material. Basically, those industries that currently exist use imported raw materials (lithium carbonate) from China, Chile and Argentina.
PJSC KhMZ (Krasnoyarsk Territory), OOO Trade House Khalmek (Tula Region), JSC AECC (TVEL) (Irkutsk Region), PJSC NCCP (TVEL) (Novosibirsk Region)
— four grains of sand on which future pearls can form in the production of lithium-containing materials and lithium products.
What are the prospects for the development of the full-cycle lithium industry?
We are now in that stage of isolation when we cannot even import raw materials, not to mention the fact that we also need the final product. Therefore, we plan to form a full cycle chain: from the extraction of raw materials in the Russian Federation to the production of final products. All of this can be done in existing factories. Rosatom and Norilsk Nickel have created a joint venture to enter the auction for one of the fields in the Murmansk region. ROEL Group and Trade House Halmek also set up a joint venture to enter another field in the Murmansk region. If the auctions are held in the fourth quarter of this year, my colleagues and I will try to become subsoil users of at least two deposits located in the Murmansk region. In addition, Gazprom plans to extract lithium from hydro-mineral raw materials.
In the future, we are considering the possibility of creating a joint venture with Norilsk Nickel to produce cathode materials that will use cobalt, nickel and lithium. It is also planned to assemble the final product - storage batteries - in the Kaliningrad region. This is how we plan to enter the production of rechargeable batteries and energy storage devices that will be used by our industries.
You can not create a lithium industry from scratch. In order to work with such knowledge-intensive industries, certain competencies are needed. In this regard, the alliance between Norilsk Nickel and Rosatom seems to be optimal, since the companies have operating production facilities for lithium-containing products, and have experience in implementing large-scale mining projects in remote areas in the Arctic zone. Also of great importance is the availability of human and technical potential.
Lithium is included in the perimeter of rare metals. The Government pays great attention to the development of the industry of rare and rare earth metals, and in 2019-2020 the Roadmap for the development of production in the Russian Federation RM and REE was approved and an agreement was signed between the Government and Rosatom on the implementation of the Roadmap in terms of developing projects for rare and rare earth metals. We are now engaged in this work, in priority - individual oxides of rare earth metals (tantalum, lithium, niobium, titanium, zirconium, beryllium, rhenium). For all these metals, to one degree or another, we have project implementation. If we raise lithium projects, we will close the Roadmap indicators by 17% in terms of production and by 25% in terms of annual revenue.”
At the end of his speech, I. Demidov addressed the representative of Rosnedra with a request to expedite the issuance of the Government's order on corporatization of deposits.
In the same session, we would like to note the report of the head of the information and analytical center for subsoil use of the Federal State Budgetary Institution VIMS, Ekaterina Nikitina, on the topic “Battery metals in Russia - geological priorities and the near future of production”.
At the end of the report, a lively discussion unfolded, the main topic was the question of the prospects of various methods of lithium mining, as well as the development of cobalt and germanium.
Igor Demidov asked the speaker a question about the possibility of replacing graphite with a germanium anode: “I saw here that graphite is unambiguously identified as anodes. As a mining division of Rosatom, we are faced with proposals for the development of germanium in this deposit. In scientific circles, the story of replacing graphite with a germanium anode, which is 4-5 times more economical, is being actively worked out. Have you encountered this and should germanium deposits be taken into development?”
Elena Nikitina: “So far, germanium has not been found in information from information analytical agencies. To replace graphite, there were other substances - silicon, for example. We saw this publication at the site of the Academy of Sciences.”
The speakers agreed that until the fork between scientific research and practical implementation has been crossed, Russia needs to have several projects in order to be ready if the technology takes a new path.
Video of Igor Demidov's performance can be found here:.
MINEX Russia Forum and Exhibition is the leading industry platform, opening up opportunities for business development in the geological, mining and metallurgical industries of Russia and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Community.