Context: Preliminary surveys by the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), have shown the presence of 1,600 tonnes of lithium resources in the igneous rocks of the Marlagalla-Allapatna region of Karnataka’s Mandya district.

• Alongside a move to tap into the global lithium value chain, India has initiated a concerted domestic exploration push for the alkali metal, a vital ingredient of the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs), laptops and mobile phones.
• India currently imports all its lithium needs.
• The domestic exploration push, which also includes exploratory work to extract lithium from the brine pools of Rajasthan and Gujarat and the mica belts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, comes at a time when India has stepped up its economic offensive against China, a major source of lithium-ion energy storage products being imported into the country.
• Countries with proven reserves of Lithium are Bolivia (21 million tonnes), Argentina (17 million tonnes), Australia (6.3 million tonnes), and China (4.5 million tonnes).
• Lithium can be extracted in different ways, depending on the type of the deposit – it is generally done either through solar evaporation of large brine pools or by hard-rock extraction of the ore.
• India is seen as a late mover in attempts to enter the lithium value chain, coming at a time when EVs are predicted to be a sector ripe for disruption.
• 2021 is likely to be an inflection point for battery technology – with several potential improvements to the li-ion technology, and alternatives to this tried-and-tested formulation in advanced stages of commercialisation.
• Over 165 crore lithium batteries are estimated to have been imported into India between 2016-17 and 2019-20 (up to November 30, 2019), at an estimated import bill of upwards of $3.3 billion.
• In 2019, the world’s Top 5 lithium producers were:
  • Australia - 52.9% of global production
  • Chile - 21.5%
  • China - 9.7%
  • Argentina - 8.3%
  • Zimbabwe - 2.1%

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/looking-for-lithium-toehold-india-finds-a-small-deposit-in-karnataka-7141303/

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