Energizer® Ultimate Lithium Batteries
Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — Bolivia holds as much as half of the world’s lithium reserves, a key component in making hybrid or electric cars, the New York Times reported, citing Oji Baba, an executive with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp.’s base metals unit.
- The future of our electric powered vehicles need one key component to be light & compact enought to be practical however half of the lithium is in this country Bolivia.
According to Nation & World:
UYUNI, Bolivia — In the rush to build the next generation of hybrid or electric cars, a sobering fact confronts both automakers and governments seeking to lower their reliance on foreign oil: Almost half of the world’s lithium, the mineral needed to power the vehicles, is found in Bolivia — a country that may not be willing to surrender it easily.
Read the Full Article at Nation & World:
- The above article describe Bolivia as “Saudi Arabia of Lithium” but also have difficult nationalistic government that had been hard for foreigners to draw on it’s lithium resources for profit.
Having discovering that where else can we find lithium deposit?
According to US Geological Survey
- 5.4 million tons of lithium could potentially be extracted in Bolivia
- 3 million in Chile
- 1.1 million in China
- 410,000 in the United States.
These articles also noted several corporations are desperately seeking these lithium for development of the next generation electric vehicles or electronic devices.
They are
- Mitsubishi and Sumitomo
- A group led by a French industrialist, Vincent Bollore
- General Motors next year plans to roll out its Volt
- Nissan, Ford and BMW, among other car makers, have similar projects.
Demand for lithium, long used in small amounts in mood-stabilizing drugs and thermonuclear weapons, has climbed as makers of batteries for BlackBerrys and other electronic devices use the mineral. But the automotive industry holds the biggest untapped potential for lithium, analysts say. Since it weighs less than nickel, which is also used in batteries, it would allow electric cars to store more energy and be driven longer distances.
Knowing the above information may give some ideas on opportunities for investment directions however bewarned that lithium batteries are potentially explosive when over charged hence users have to be extremely careful while charging these babies.
The future may spell danger if countries that hold such valuable resources refused to “sell” them quickly to other countries to manufacture electric vehicles hence resulting a reduce the dependence of oil…which simply means “Huston, we have a problem…again”.
Unfortunately, in the times of economic crisis…many countries had started their own “protectionistic” campaign to protect their own country from recession shockwave which might result in “a significant slowdown” in the progress of future technological improvement of the world of electronics.
Oh, we don’t want another Iraq War or nuclear war but hopefully someone can invest in Bolivia enough to convince them to open the lithium “tap” wider for the benefit of the world future development on “alternative” energy to divert away from dirty fuels such as coal or crude oil.
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