MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation has identified several sources of lithium production in Russia, among them are developing new fields, processing collected waste and purchasing foreign assets, First Deputy Director General for Development and International Business of Rosatom Kirill Komarov said at a meeting of the Federation Council’s economic policy committee on Monday.
"There are three sources of lithium in Russia. The first is by developing new fields, and at present we see one that holds the best prospects - the Kolmozerskoye field in the Murmansk Region - which we want [to develop] jointly with Nornickel. We expect the government to auction it this year, and we want to start work on it. The second source is extracting lithium from what are known as salt brines. This is mainly the Irkutsk Region, at the Kovytkinskoye field. And the third option is to extract lithium from waste amassed nationwide, though it is hard to get much here. Anything cheap has to be actively purchased overseas. We did the same with uranium, which provided us with good results. And we should also try to [purchase] lithium abroad and definitely produce it on the country’s territory," he said.
Lithium is a raw material, particularly used for manufacturing batteries and energy storage systems, which is required for electronic technology, electric transport and for renewable sources of energy. According to the International Energy Agency, the global demand for lithium will skyrocket 40-fold by 2040.
Earlier reports said that Argentina and Chile had halted lithium supplies to Russia, with the only option remaining to receive the raw material from Bolivia.