The accelerated development of domestic lithium extraction in response to the loss of the South American market creates a new problem for Russia. According to expert estimates, by 2030, the volume of extraction could significantly exceed domestic consumption, but at the same time, the country lacks facilities for processing raw materials into components for batteries, reports "Svobodnaya Pressa".
Currently, lithium consumption in Russia does not exceed 9 tons per year. After the commissioning of the Kolmozerskoye and Polmostundrovskoye deposits in the Murmansk region, extraction could reach 67 tons annually. Thus, supply could exceed demand by more than seven times.
The main problem is that Russia has battery production ("third stage processing"), but lacks the production of elements for energy storage devices ("second stage processing"). This means that either processing facilities will have to be urgently created from scratch, or raw materials will be exported unprocessed.
Until 2022, the country imported up to 9 thousand tons of lithium per year, mainly from Chile and Argentina, spending about 4 billion rubles on this. After the loss of South American supplies, Russia was forced to accelerate the development of its own projects. However, the forced increase in extraction without parallel development of processing could lead to a paradoxical situation.
Before the launch of its own deposits, Russia will cover its needs through imports from China, which processes raw materials from South America and Australia. China, it should be noted, is the world leader in lithium processing, controlling about 60% of global production.