04-Jun-19, Asia Times
New massive deposits of lithium ore have been found in the wilderness of China’s southwestern Yunnan province, and a preliminary estimate by geologists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has put the size of the new discovery at no less than five million metric tons.
%20Getty%20Images.png "Discovery of huge lithium deposits to boost Beijings e car drive (c) Getty Images")
Image: Getty Images
The People’s Daily reported that the new deposits in a basin in Yunnan would have the potential to shed China’s reliance on imported ore and accelerate Beijing’s electric car drive. The report noted that explorations in Yunnan found around 340,000 tonnes of carbonate lithium ore in a two to 16-meter bed within an area of 7.2 square kilometers.
It remains to be seen how the latest discovery may alter China’s geological disadvantage, which saw the country contributing to a mere 7% of global lithium output in 2018, or about 8,000 tons. Still, China came third worldwide as measured by mining, after Australia and Chile.