If lithium was as abundant as you claim, why is the Lithium Triangle a thing?

The largest exporter is Australia and the largest importer is China. Were lithium abundant, why does China import most of its lithium?

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ianburrell 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

Abundant doesn't mean available in location. It can be concentrated in one spot and more economic to mine there and ship where needed.

Australia also exports a billion tons of iron ore to China. Iron ore is everywhere, but easier to mine good ore in Australia and ship it. Shipping is really efficient.

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eldaisfish 5 days ago | parent [-]

my response was from the security of access angle.

sure, lithium is more abundant than gold or silver but lithium access is not secure. Given that the largest lithium processing facilities by far are in one country (Chile), the supply of lithium is far from secure.

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7thaccount 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think because we weren't doing a whole lot of looking until recently. I think a bunch of lithium has been recently discovered in Arkansas.

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fragmede 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Because processing it is a value added service, and China doesn't have an incentive to build lithium processing plants in Australia.