Estimating Lithium Reserves for Tomorrow’s Energy Technologies

The [Bolivian] State assures the world the supply of lithium in quantities that are enough for electric vehicles, [and for] fuel for future nuclear fusion with clean electric power, based on lithium at a fair price without speculation or mono poly." 1 Thus spoke Bolivian President Evo Morales in 2010, when he launched a US$875 million investment to mine and process lithium.Two issues stand out in his statement, which are typically missed by global media bent on exposing the resource nationalism of Bolivia's lithium policies.2 First, reflecting mining memories formed earlier with other minerals and shared across Latin Amer i ca, President Morales called for stable global mineral markets, characterized by fair prices and no speculation or mono poly power.Second, President Morales led the presentation of this major industrial policy by emphasizing lithium's importance to two energy technologies: nuclear fusion and EVs.Both have long held out hope of better energy futures, the first in the form of electricity for residential use and the second in batteries for cleaner transportation.In referring to lithium's use in these two energy technologies, he was emphasizing that this mineral is special because of its potential role in delivering technologies that promise to revolutionize electricity and transportation.Since the 1950s, nuclear fusion has held out the promise of providing a cheap, clean, and infinite energy supply.Nuclear fusion mimics the central action of the sun, whereby nuclei overcome the forces normally repelling them from each other to instead come together, releasing tremendous energy in the process (as opposed to nuclear fission, where the atom is split, as used in all functioning nuclear power plants).Scientists' preferred nuclei are tritium, made from lithium, and deuterium; they fuse at exceedingly high temperatures, but achieving and controlling such heat has remained impossible.Nuclear fusion has long been mocked for its slow rate of pro gress and 3 Estimating Lithium Reserves for Tomorrow's Energy Technologies