The race for white gold is on all over the world

Essential for making batteries for electronic equipment and electric vehicles, lithium is generating increasingly intense global demand and several countries are stepping up their search for what is already considered the ‘white gold’ of the energy transition. Its versatility of use is enormous, which is why the increase in lithium exploration has been detecting resources in the most varied countries in the world.

In this field, it is important to distinguish between lithium resources and lithium reserves. In the first case, we refer to the total amount of lithium in a given location, whether discovered or estimated, regardless of whether it is economically viable or technically possible to extract. And here, the so-called ‘Lithium Triangle’ stands out - located in South America and made up of Bolivia, with 23 million tonnes (MT), Argentina (22 MT) and Chile (11 MT) - which already has foreign direct investment from China. All because, although the deposits located there account for more than 60 per cent of the world's lithium resources, production is still below its potential, mainly due to the lack of technological capacity for extraction and refining activities.

Spread across the world's five continents, lithium is mainly found in South America, Asia and Europe - in the Old Continent, the country with the largest resources (3.8 MT) is Germany - but there are currently 52 mineral exploration projects focused on lithium around the world, two of them in Portugal (Mina do Barroso and Guarda).

Portugal stands out in terms of reserves and production

As for reserves - the part of the resources that are economically viable for extraction with current technical and economic methods - Chile has the highest number, with 9.3 MT, followed by Australia (6.2 MT), and Argentina (3.6 MT). Portugal's position on this list is noteworthy: with 60,000 tonnes, it is the 9th country with the most lithium reserves in the world and the largest in Europe.

In the lithium production sector, Portugal is even in 8th place - also the largest in Europe - with 380 tonnes, in a list led by Australia (86,000 tonnes), with figures almost double those of second-placed Chile (44,000 tonnes). China is in 3rd place with 33,000 tonnes produced, 29,000 more than 10 years ago (4,000 tonnes).