India’s first Lithium refinery will be set up in Gujarat. The refinery will process Lithium ore to produce battery-grade material.
- Manikaran Power Limited, one of the country’s largest power trading and renewable energy company will be investing over Rs 1,000 crore to set up this refinery.
- TDS Lithium-Ion Battery Gujarat Private Ltd is India’s first Lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Gujarat.
- Lithium rare element: Lithium is a rare element not usually found in India. Manikaran Power Limited will be importing Lithium ore from Australia and will processing in Gujarat.
- Litihium Production: According to the latest figures from the US Geological Survey (USGS), global lithium production in 2019 stood at 77,000 tonnes.
- Australia top producer: Australia is by far the world’s top producer of lithium, with an output of 42,000 tonnes in 2019. Chile is at second position. While it is the world’s top producer, Australia has only the fifth-largest known reserves of lithium in the world.
- China largest consumer: China is the world’s largest consumer of lithium.
- Lithium triangle: Continued exploration efforts have seen global lithium-reserve estimates climb to 80 million tonnes – a significant proportion of which are located in South America’s “lithium triangle” – an area encompassing parts of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.