Even if supply, destroys environment and erupting protests shut down production

Despite holding out the promise of a low-emissions future, lithium production itself comes with eye-watering environmental costs. More than 2.2 million litres of water is needed to mine one tonne of the metal, according to Fairfield Market Research. Extracting the metal is also associated with the release of borax, potassium, and manganese into local water supplies.

From Chile to Serbia, conflict has erupted between miners and people who live near lithium deposits. In North Carolina, residents in the town of Cherryville have railed against plans by Australia-based Piedmont Lithium to open a lithium mine, pointing to unsightly scars left in the landscape by previous miners during the 1950s.

Lithium mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo have become notorious for using child labour, while Amnesty International has documented violations of Indigenous rights by lithium miners in Argentina.

The looming lithium crisis has also unleashed a wave of resource nationalism, particularly in the lithium “triangle” of South America consisting of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile, which holds 60 percent of known reserves, according to the US Geological Survey.

Bolivia’s socialist government is hamstringing foreign investment in its vast reserves, which are the largest on earth. Stricter licensing requirements and nationalisation of water resources are on the cards in Chile, while Mexico is considering nationalising its lithium deposits.